Three letters describe the Trump administration’s position on congressional oversight of itself: investigate us, and you may be investigated. In a letter dated Monday and released publicly on Wednesday, the White House accused Democratic lawmakers of seeking to “abuse” their power by pursuing investigations into executive officials, Al Jazeera reported. The letter was addressed to Representative Robert Garcia of California, who denounced it as an attack on the legislative branch.
The sender was White House counsel Will Scharf, according to the Los Angeles Times, which described the letter as raising the possibility of criminal investigations into House Democrats over the inquiries they plan to open into Trump and administration officials. Garcia is in line to lead the House Oversight Committee — a post that becomes an investigative one now that Democrats regained control of the House in the midterm elections, ABC News noted.
Scharf’s letter, as a copy summarized by Yahoo News, said the administration is “monitoring the abusive and capricious threats that are now proliferating from Democrat legislators” and warned that the subpoenas Democrats have previewed could cross into what he called blatant criminality. According to the outlets that reviewed it, the letter cites no criminal statute and does not say anything has been referred to the Justice Department. ABC News reported that Scharf pointed to numerous recent statements from Democrats previewing aggressive investigative work — while noting it is unclear how any of those statements could implicate federal criminal law.
Garcia did not soften his answer. “The American people voted overwhelmingly for us to pass laws to root out corruption and abuse,” he said Wednesday, per The Guardian, accusing the administration of continuing to weaponize government with threats of unconstitutional attacks. He also, NBC News reported, pointed to the Constitution’s grant to Congress of “wide latitude to conduct investigations” into the administration.
The asymmetry worth tracking is procedural. A House majority can issue subpoenas on the day it organizes; a White House counsel’s letter authorizes nothing by itself. Whether the warning in Scharf’s letter stays rhetorical, or becomes a referral the Justice Department is expected to act on, is the number-zero question heading into January.