Will Scharf, President Donald Trump’s adviser and chief lawyer, warned that the White House could pursue an investigation of congressional Democrats after they pledged to investigate Trump and his allies. (Foto: Instagram)
The White House has warned that it could pursue a criminal investigation of congressional Democrats after they won a majority in the midterm elections and pledged to investigate President Donald Trump and his allies when they take office in January. Will Scharf, the president’s adviser and chief lawyer, sent a letter to Rep. Robert Garcia, the Democrat expected to lead the House Oversight Committee. The letter was disclosed Nov. 12.
Scharf wrote that Democrats’ repeated public promises to use their new majority to investigate Trump and his allies could cross constitutional boundaries and potentially amount to illegal threats. He said the White House was monitoring what he called abusive and arbitrary threats by Democratic lawmakers seeking to misuse the legislative process to intimidate the government and disrupt its lawful operations.
Scharf also warned that the lawmakers’ actions could amount to “blatant criminal conduct” and could prompt an executive branch investigation of Congress. The letter’s warning echoed Trump’s social media posts, in which he has suggested that Democrats could face criminal consequences for what he described as their “aggressive posture.”
Garcia responded that Congress’s authority comes from Article I of the Constitution, not from the White House, and that lawmakers have broad power to conduct investigations as part of their legislative role. He said the president appeared to have something to hide.
Garcia added that voters had given Democrats a strong mandate to pass laws against corruption and abuse. He accused the Trump administration of using the government to threaten unconstitutional attacks on Congress and said lawmakers would not be intimidated by what he called baseless threats from a politicized Justice Department or the president’s lawyers.
