正在播放：在收到一系列致国会领袖的信函、称该届政府将试图回绝他们的调查之后，民主党人正准备与白宫和司法部展开一场决战。
NOW PLAYING Democrats are preparing for a knockout fight with the White House and the Department of Justice (DOJ) after a series of letters to legislative leaders saying the administration would seek to rebuff their probes.
众议院监督委员会首席议员兼候任主席、众议员罗伯特·加西亚（民主党-加利福尼亚州）在接受CNN主持人凯特兰·柯林斯采访时表示：“我认为国会必须动用其全部权力。”他还补充说，民主党人不会害怕诉诸法院。
他继续说道：“当你问及全国各地的人们是什么促使他们投票并带来变革时，他们都提到了同样的两点：一是负担能力，二是根除政府腐败。好吧，我们有权打击腐败，当然也包括特朗普家族的腐败。”
“I think Congress has to flex all of its power,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the House Oversight Committee’s ranking member and incoming chair, said during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, adding that Democrats would not be afraid to turn to the courts. “When you ask people across the country why they were motivated to vote and to bring change, they said the same two things: It was about affordability, and it was about rooting out government corruption. Well, we have a mandate to take on corruption, and certainly the corruption of the Trump family,” he continued.
白宫致加西亚的一封信暗示新一轮调查有演变成刑事性质的风险，这并非本周唯一的此类信件。
A White House letter to Garcia suggesting incoming probes risked becoming criminal in nature was not the only correspondence this week.
美国得克萨斯州南区联邦检察官亚伦·雷茨周三指责参议员理查德·布卢门塔尔（民主党-康涅狄格州）在联系特朗普总统宴会厅建设项目及其他翻修工程的捐款人时“恐吓”相关实体。当雷茨指示即将出任参议院常设调查小组委员会主席的布卢门塔尔保留其记录以备潜在的未来刑事调查时，这位参议员当即回击，并要求该检察官也这样做。
Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, accused Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday of “terrorizing” entities when the senator contacted those who donated to President Trump’s ballroom construction project and other renovations. When Reitz directed Blumenthal, the incoming chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, to preserve his records for a potential future criminal probe, the senator shot back and demanded the same from the attorney.
在甚至尚未发出单张传票的情况下，双方在一场迅速升级的争斗中都指责对方越权。
Both sides have accused the other of overreaching in a quickly escalating brawl before a single subpoena has been issued.
即将领导众议院司法委员会的众议员杰米·拉斯金（民主党-马里兰州）表示：“他们在大肆夸大自己的权力，是在自取其辱。”在过去两年担任该委员会少数党领袖期间，他曾发出200多封索取信息的信件。
“They are overstating their powers in a huge way and setting themselves up for embarrassment,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is set to lead the House Judiciary Committee and has fired off more than 200 letters requesting information during the last two years he led the panel in the minority.
法律在很大程度上对新上台的民主党人有利，因为国会的调查权力已得到最高法院的维护；法律禁止妨碍他们的工作；议员本人也享有言论或辩论条款提供的广泛保护。
The law is largely on the side of the incoming Democrats, as Congress’s investigatory powers have been upheld by the Supreme Court; laws bar obstruction of their efforts; and members themselves are afforded broad protections from the speech or debate clause.
然而，这些信件表明了白宫施加压力、以击退即将到来的调查的姿态。
The letters, however, signal the pressure from the White House to push back on the coming investigations.
赖茨的这封信是在彭博社报道了司法部与全国93名联邦检察官召开的一次气氛紧张的电话会议之后发出的。会上提及有必要在未来采取“战时”立场，并告知这些被任命者，如果他们准备不好执行政府的命令，就应该准备辞职。
Reitz’s letter came after Bloomberg News reported a tense call the DOJ led with the nation’s 93 U.S. attorneys, including a reference for the need to take a “wartime” stance going forward and telling the appointees they should be prepared to resign if they are not ready to carry out the administration’s orders.
赖茨写道：“对于一名民选官员来说，去恐吓那些从事将造福我国几代人的慈善实践的公民，这也是非同寻常的。”
“It is also extraordinary for an elected official to intimidate citizens for engaging in philanthropic practices that will benefit our nation for generations,” Reitz wrote.
这封信在多个方面都很罕见，包括目前尚不清楚，如果发生任何犯罪行为，常驻休斯敦的联邦检察官对一名议员会有什么管辖权。
It was an unusual letter in multiple regards, including that it’s unclear what jurisdiction a Houston-based U.S. attorney would have over a lawmaker in the event any crime had been committed.
本身曾任联邦检察官的布卢门塔尔表示，濒临犯罪边缘的恰恰是赖茨。
Blumenthal, himself a former U.S. attorney, said that Reitz is the one edging toward a crime.
他说：“我对这些威胁和霸凌感到绝对震惊，这些本可能荒谬可笑，但这是对检察权力的严重滥用。对我的威胁绝对是出于政治目的将司法部武器化的缩影。”
“I was absolutely astonished at the threats and bullying, which would have been ludicrous, but it was such a misuse of prosecutorial power. The threat to me is the absolute epitome of weaponization of the Department of Justice for political purposes,” he said.
“干预国会调查是行政部门违反宪法的行为。这是一个独立的政府分支，宪法非常明确地将这类调查与他所威胁的那种干预隔离开来。”
“Interference in a congressional investigation is a violation of the Constitution by the executive branch. It’s a separate branch of government, and the Constitution insulates this type of investigation very explicitly from the kind of interference that he is threatening.”
撰写致加西亚信函的白宫法律顾问威尔·沙夫为这种联系进行了辩护：“他们不能以给政府官员施加痛苦为目的进行调查，”沙夫周三在Newsmax的《罗布·施密特今晚》节目中说。
Will Scharf, the White House counsel who penned the letter to Garcia, defended the outreach“They can’t investigate for the purpose of inflicting pain on government officials,” Scharf said Wednesday on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
“他们不能为了自我吹嘘而调查事情。这些都是对国会权力公然不当的使用，”他继续说道。“我们要看看一月会发生什么，但如果他们想走那条路，我们准备好拼死一战。”
“They can’t investigate things for their own self-aggrandizement. These are blatantly inappropriate uses of Congress’s power,” he continued. “We’re going to see what happens in January, but we’re ready to fight tooth and nail here if that’s the road they want to go down.”
即将出任众议院少数党领袖的吉姆·乔丹（共和党-俄亥俄州），此前作为众议院司法委员会主席曾要求起诉特朗普的检察官移交调查档案，他也明确表示担心最坏的情况发生。
Incoming House Minority Leader Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who as House Judiciary chair demanded those prosecuting Trump turn over their investigative files, also made clear he fears the worst.
“将会有第三次弹劾。他们管不住自己。他们将追查内阁中的每个人。我们已经在战争部长[皮特]·赫格塞斯身上看到了这一点。他们将追查私营部门的人员，我认为这很荒谬。他们已经向政府内外数百人发出了信函，”他在周三与福克斯新闻的肖恩·汉尼蒂的对话中说。
“There’ll be a third impeachment. They can’t help themselves. They’re going to go after everyone in the Cabinet. We’ve already seen that with Secretary of War [Pete] Hegseth. They’re going to go after people in the private sector, which I think is ridiculous. They’ve already sent hundreds of letters out to people in the government and outside the government,” he said Wednesday during a conservation with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.
“然后，当然了，肖恩，我认为他们可能还会做的事是，我认为他们将追查他们认为我们的提名人将是谁。”
“And then, of course, Sean, I think what they’re probably going to also do, I think they’re going to go after whoever they think our nominee is going to be.”
民主党人在多个战线上已明确表示他们的调查优先事项。加西亚将继续调查爱泼斯坦档案，监督委员会和司法委员会均已启动多项调查，内容涉及特朗普家族可能如何从总统职位中获利，包括他的加密货币业务以及来自后来获得特赦者的捐款。
Democrats have been clear about their investigative priorities on a number of fronts. Garcia will continue the Epstein files investigation, and the Oversight and Judiciary committees both have launched a number of probes into ways the Trump family may have profited off the presidency, including his crypto ventures and donations from those who were later pardoned.
尽管民主党人在过去两年里发出了无数要求提供信息的信函，但大都遭遇了冷遇。
While Democrats have fired off numerous letters demanding information over the last two years, they’ve largely been met with silence.
他们重新夺回多数党地位，不仅使他们能够发出传票。如今重新掌控众议院后，民主党人恢复了诉讼渠道，能够以在多数党时期的方式代表众议院提起诉讼。
Their return to the majority doesn’t just enable them to fire off subpoenas. Now back in control of the House, Democrats have renewed access to the courts, able to file litigation on behalf of the House in a way they were during the majority.
加西亚表示，如果白宫公然拒绝配合传票，他已准备好提起诉讼，并辩称该党无需依赖特朗普的司法部对抗拒传票者提出国会藐视指控。
Garcia said he was prepared to bring litigation should the White House simply refuse to comply with subpoenas, arguing the party wouldn’t need to rely on the Trump DOJ to bring contempt of Congress charges to those in defiance.
“如你所知，当你身处多数党时，我们有权代表众议院提起诉讼。我们有权审查藐视行为，不仅是刑事藐视，还包括民事藐视，”他说。
“As you know, when you’re in the majority, we have the power to sue on behalf of the House. We have the power to go look at contempt, whether not just criminal contempt, but also civil contempt,” he said.
“因此，这是一个通过法院而非司法部进行的程序。”党内几位人士表示，他们发现这些信件令人振奋，并相信这表明他们的工作触动了特朗普的痛处——他们称这种反应是由试图掩盖不当行为所驱动的。
“And so that’s a process that goes through the courts, not the DOJ.”Several in the party have said they find the correspondence to be energizing and believe it shows their work has touched a nerve with Trump – a reaction they say is driven by seeking to hide misdeeds.
众议院委员会资历最深的民主党人、众议员斯蒂芬·林奇（民主党-马萨诸塞州）对《国会山报》表示：“这只意味着特朗普对此感到烦恼。”
“It just means that Trump is bothered by this,” Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), the most senior Democrat on the panel, told The Hill.
“你知道的，国会可能会开始对他的某些行为进行监督这一事实——这在某种程度上进一步说明了共和党掌控的众议院和参议院没有做任何此类工作，所以他实际上拥有随心所欲的绝对自由。”
“You know, the fact that Congress might actually start to do oversight regarding some of his conduct – it sort of amplifies the point that the Republican House and the Republican Senate did none of this, so he had literally carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.”
林奇补充说：“这完全是对他所作所为的掩盖。这就是我们的工作，而现在他对此感到威胁，这具有讽刺意味，因此他在进行反击。这正是他的一贯作风。当他觉得有人威胁到他的财务状况或质疑他的权威时，他就会发起攻击。”拉斯金也将此视为一窥总统想法的窗口。
“It’s been a complete cover-up of everything he’s been doing,” Lynch added. “That’s our job, and now he feels threatened by that, ironically, and so he’s pushing back. It’s sort of what he does. He attacks when he feels like there’s someone either threatening his financial situation or questioning his authority.”Raskin also saw it as a preview into the president’s thinking.
“我想，他们在任何特定日子所做的任何事，通常都是唐纳德·特朗普心理状态的反映。所以唐纳德·特朗普肯定对即将到来的监督听证会感到极度恐慌，这些听证会将审查特朗普政府内部发生的所有腐败和权钱交易，”拉斯金说。
“I guess whatever they do on any particular day is generally a reflection of Donald Trump’s state of mind. So Donald Trump must be freaking out about the forthcoming oversight hearings into all of the corruption and inside dealing taking place in the Trump administration,” Raskin said.
“所以他生气了。他们让他做点什么，他就给监督委员会发了一封完全荒谬的信。”
“So he got upset. They told him to do something, and he fires off an absolutely ludicrous letter to the Oversight Committee.”