白宫已向民主党人发出警告，针对他们计划对特朗普政府展开的调查，甚至声称此类调查——国会的一项标准监督职能——可能构成“公然犯罪”。
The White House has issued a warning to Democrats over their planned probes into the Trump administration, going as far as claiming that such investigations — a standard oversight function of Congress — may amount to “blatant criminality.”
白宫法律顾问威尔·沙夫在周一致众议院监督委员会首席民主党人、众议员罗伯特·加西亚的信中发出了这一警告。加西亚极有可能在明年1月新一届民主党控制的国会就职后，出任这一权力巨大的委员会主席。上周中期选举中，随着本党即将取得惊人胜利，加西亚曾警告特朗普政府官员“找律师吧”。
White House counsel Will Scharf issued the warning in a letter dated Monday to Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Garcia most likely would chair the powerful panel in the new Democratic-controlled Congress that is seated in January. Garcia warned Trump officials to “lawyer up” as his party was on the way to stunning victories in last week's midterm election.
对此，沙夫在信中写道：“旨在阻吓行政部门官员从事公共服务的威胁，或仅旨在滥用职权、恐吓受调查者的程序，可能已越界，构成公然犯罪。”该信件的存在最早由《Punchbowl News》报道。
In response, Scharf wrote that “threats to executive branch officials designed to deter them from public service, or process designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient may cross the line into blatant criminality." The letter’s existence was first reported by Punchbowl News.
这只是白宫为明年与新近掌权的众参两院民主党人正面交锋而发出的最新警告信号，这场对决对国会权力和行政、立法两部门之间的权力平衡有重大影响。加西亚回击白宫信函周三在国会大厦外，加西亚对记者表示：“唐纳德·特朗普显然在隐瞒什么”，而民主党人“不会受到威胁或恐吓”。“事实是，他需要明白国会是一个与行政部门地位平等的政府分支，”加西亚说。
It's just the latest shot across the bow as the White House prepares to square off against newly empowered Democrats in the House and Senate next year, a showdown with major implications for congressional authority and the balance of power between the branches of government. Garcia pushes back on the White House letterOutside the Capitol on Wednesday, Garcia told reporters that “Donald Trump is clearly hiding something” and that Democrats “are not going to be threatened or intimidated.”“The truth is that he needs to understand that Congress is a coequal branch of government,” Garcia said.
他重申了大选后“找律师吧”的言论，称白宫“玻璃心”，经不起“任何一点压力”。“如果你欺骗了美国公众，你就该找律师，”加西亚说。“如果你是企业首席执行官，正在坑害美国人民，你就该找律师。”
He doubled down on his “lawyer up” post after the election, saying the White House was “thin-skinned” and couldn't “take any sort of heat.”“If you have abused the American public, you should lawyer up," Garcia said. “If you're a corporate CEO and you're ripping off the American people, you should lawyer up.”
民主党人正准备一项大规模监督议程，调查特朗普及其家族自他重返白宫以来是如何变得更富有的。
Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda to look at how Trump and his family have become wealthier since he returned to office.
共和党籍总统及其白宫长期以来否认有任何不当行为。加西亚还想审视政府对杰弗里·爱泼斯坦案件的调查处理以及移民与海关执法局的行动。其他调查目标包括特朗普白宫舞厅及其他建设项目，以及特朗普家族在矿产交易中的角色和特朗普与特使史蒂夫·威特科夫的加密货币交易。
The Republican president and his White House have long denied any wrongdoing. Garcia also wants to look at the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Other targets include Trump’s White House ballroom and other construction projects, as well as the Trump family’s role in mineral deals and Trump’s crypto dealings with special envoy Steve Witkoff.
共和党籍监督委员会主席称该小组“非常独立”肯塔基州共和党人詹姆斯·科默是现任监督委员会主席，曾对前总统乔·拜登及其家人进行广泛调查。他在周三告诉美联社，尚未阅读白宫的来信，但强调该小组“非常独立”。
科默说：“无论谁在白宫，监督委员会都将始终强烈希望成为行政分支的制衡力量，无论政治局势如何。”
The Republican chair of Oversight says the panel is ‘very independent’Kentucky Republican James Comer, the current chair of the Oversight Committee who conducted a wide-ranging investigation of former President Joe Biden and his family, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he had not yet read the letter from the White House, but stressed that the panel is "very independent.”“Regardless of who is in the White House, there's always going to be a strong desire for the Oversight Committee to be a check and balance on the executive branch, regardless of the political scenario," Comer said.
他认为加西亚的“请律师”言论“品味恶劣”，但表示“民主党赢得了选举，这将是他的委员会。所以如果他越界，我推测他的成员会设法约束他。”
He said he thought Garcia's “lawyer up” comments were in “bad taste” but Democrats "won the election and it's going to be his committee. So if he gets out of line, I would assume that his members will try to rein him in.”
司法部长托德·布兰奇在周日播出的CNN采访中表示，如果民主党人的言辞变得具有威胁性，“可能会有”犯罪需要调查。他在本周于密苏里州的一次露面中似乎采取了更和解的语气，称“国会拥有监督权。一直都有，将来也永远有。司法部、联邦政府与国会合作解决他们的问题——无论是通过传票还是信函——所以我们不会停止与国会合作。”
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday that “there could be” a crime to investigate if rhetoric from Democrats turned threatening. He appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone during an appearance in Missouri this week, saying “Congress has oversight authority. It always has, it always will. The Department of Justice, the federal government, works with Congress to address questions they have — whether it’s through subpoenas or letters — so we’re not going to stop working with Congress.”“Nothing I’ve said this weekend, or in the past, should suggest otherwise,” he added.
他补充说：“我这个周末或过去所说的任何话都不应暗示相反的情况。”尽管如此，司法部其他官员仍在反驳。美国……美国德克萨斯州南区联邦检察官周三致信康涅狄格州参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔，要求他保存所有与其调查相关的记录。布卢门撒尔将于1月出任参议院一个强有力的调查委员会主席。赖茨在信中称布卢门撒尔的行动意在“剥夺公民的核心宪法权利”，并指向布卢门撒尔10月致信向新白宫舞厅捐款者一事。
Still, Justice Department officials elsewhere were pushing back. Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Texas, wrote to Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday, telling him to preserve all records relevant to his investigations. Blumenthal is poised to chair a powerful Senate investigative committee in January. Reitz called Blumenthal’s efforts an “intent to deprive citizens of their core constitutional rights,” pointing to his October letter to people who donated to the new White House ballroom.
对此，布卢门撒尔表示他“绝不受恐吓”。“特朗普政府如此害怕透明和监督，竟将司法部武器化，毫无根据地针对国会，直接违反宪法，”他在一份声明中说。其他议员对白宫警告作出回应即将离任的肯塔基州共和党众议员托马斯·马西是特朗普的批评者，他说希望民主党人不要把新获得的权力浪费在“愚蠢的事情”上。“我希望他们就真正的事情举行真正的听证会，而不是再搞一次‘通俄门’，”他说，指的是之前国会对特朗普2016年首次竞选总统团队与俄罗斯关系的调查。
In response, Blumenthal said he “will not be intimidated.”“The Trump administration is so afraid of transparency and oversight that they are weaponizing the Department of Justice to baselessly target Congress in direct violation of the Constitution," he said in a statement. Other lawmakers react to the White House's warningOutgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Trump critic, said he hopes Democrats don't squander their new powers on “stupid things.”“I hope they have real hearings about real things, not another Russia-gate,” he said, referring to a previous congressional inquiry into ties between Trump's first presidential campaign in 2016 and Russia.
特朗普多次谴责那项调查是“骗局”。“我认为在边缘地带确实存在一些真正的腐败，”马西谈到特朗普及其身边部分人时说。马西在初选中败给了特朗普支持的共和党挑战者。
Trump repeatedly denounced that investigation as a “hoax.”“I think there is some real corruption there around the fringes,” Massie said about Trump and some of those around the president. Massie lost his primary election to a Trump-backed GOP challenger.
预计将出任下届众议院道德委员会主席的加利福尼亚州民主党众议员马克·德索利尔表示，不会因白宫的警告而退缩。“如果他们想恐吓，至少对我不起作用，”2000年从共和党转投民主党的德索利尔说。“我不是为黑手党、犯罪集团工作的。”
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., who is expected to be the next House Ethics Committee chairman, said he would not back down from any investigations because of warnings from the White House.“If they're trying to intimidate, at least for me, it’s not going to get me,” said DeSaulnier, who was a Republican before he switched to the Democratic Party in 2000. “I don’t work for a mafia, a mob organization.”