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WH Confronts Dems Over Planned Probes 11/12 06:23
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."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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."
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.
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.
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 letter
Outside 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.
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."
Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda to look at how Trump and his
family have become wealthier since he returned to office. 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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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 warning
Outgoing 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. 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.
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."
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