The White House counsel made the warning in a letter dated Monday to Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach, who is in line to lead the House oversight committee.

The White House’s top lawyer is raising the possibility of criminal investigations into House Democrats, arguing that the inquiries they plan to open into President Trump and administration officials could themselves break the law.

Will Scharf, the White House counsel, made the warning in a letter dated Monday to Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), who is in line to lead the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, when Democrats take control of the chamber in January.

“We are monitoring the abusive and capricious threats that are now proliferating from Democrat legislators who seek to abuse the legislative process to intimidate and to interfere with the lawful functioning of government,” Scharf wrote.

Scharf cited recent statements by Democrats in news reports about their intent to investigate alleged corrupt practices by administration officials, and wrote that Congress needs to “identify a legitimate purpose underlying its investigative acts.” Otherwise, he argued, a “process designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient may cross the line into blatant criminality.”

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    They sent it to the wrong guy. Garcia’s not going to fold: he is the one who’s been forcing the Epstein investigations in spite of, and against all the machinations to stop it of the Republicans who now run the House Oversight Committee.

    Right now Garcia is ranking member – kind of like the vice chair, the head of the minority party – on House Oversight, and look at what he has already accomplished with his hands tied. Everything you’ve seen come out of Oversight on Epstein has been because this guy never stopped doing what he could do, never stopped working on investigations even though he could not bring them to fruition. They didn’t always win but they never stopped, never gave up, just kept going.

    And on January 3, Garcia becomes chair of Oversight, and the cuffs come off. He was one of the ones on the night of the elections posting to the defeated Rs on X, “Lawyer up.”

    In other words, Garcia’s already proven what he can and will do. The White House is literally terrified because unlike the rest of us, they KNOW what Garcia is about to do. They KNOW what is about to come out. He’s not going to back down now.

    Constitutionally, the executive does not have any power in Congress. If the White House wants to pursue this at all, they’re going to have to go through SCOTUS – the letter itself refers to previous SCOTUS cases – and even with that corrupt court this kind of executive overreach is on shaky ground.

    Also, be aware that this spurious letter comes right behind billionaire Leon Black’s (another Epstein co-conspirator) recent lawsuit against Garcia: it’s all strategy, trying to threaten and bully because that’s all they have, as of January there is no effective cover or protection left, and unlike the rest of us, they know that as soon as the facts come out, the rest of us are going to hate them with an open fury like nothing they’ve ever seen. They already got a whiff of it on Election Day; wait til the rest comes out.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
    36·
    8 hours ago

    “So you’re saying if we try to investigate you, you’ll investigate us… Which means if we try to work with you, you’ll work with us!”

    -Hakeem Jeffries, probably

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
      1·
      6 hours ago

      I think the Democrats should absolutely work with administration officials. After all, it’s important that their impeachment trials are scheduled during convenient times and do not overlap with committee testimonies.

  • NekoKoneko@lemmy.world
    24·
    8 hours ago

    I mean, the hypocrisy is so blatant as to be insulting. They are doing exactly what they claim to be protecting against.

    “We are monitoring the abusive and capricious threats that are now proliferating from Democrat legislators the DOJ who seek to abuse the legislative prosecutorial process to intimidate and to interfere with the lawful functioning of government,” Scharf wrote.

  • aetheplace@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    6 hours ago

    Congress needs to identify a legitimate purpose underlying its investigative acts? Per usual, just throwing nonsense out hoping the soundbytes do the work.

    The oversight committee has broad powers to investigate instances of government operations for waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement for programs under their jurisdiction. In fact, they are obligated to do so.

    Can’t be helped that guilty people tend to have fear instilled when being investigated. Maybe they should try doing fewer things that make them look like they need to be.

  • mercano@lemmy.world
    4·
    8 hours ago

    I hate to engage in what-aboutisim, but what about the Benghazi investigations focusing on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?