White House Warns Democrats Their Planned Trump Investigations Could ‘Cross the Line Into Blatant Criminality’

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (TodayViralUSA) — The White House has warned congressional Democrats that some of their planned investigations of the Trump administration “may cross the line into blatant criminality,” an unusual escalation that sets up a confrontation with the party before it takes control of both chambers of Congress in January.

The warning came in a three-page letter from White House counsel Will Scharf to Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its likely chairman in the new Congress. The letter, dated Monday, was first reported by Punchbowl News and became public on Wednesday.

‘We are monitoring’

Scharf wrote to “remind” Garcia of the constitutional limits on congressional investigations, citing Supreme Court rulings that inquiries must serve a legitimate legislative purpose and cannot be used to punish political opponents.

“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,” he wrote.

The letter quoted Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to hand out subpoenas “like candy” and “like Mardi Gras beads,” and argued that threats aimed at deterring officials from public service “may cross the line into blatant criminality.” It added that issuing unlawful subpoenas “may warrant further investigation.”

Garcia: ‘Something to hide’

Garcia, who told administration officials to “LAWYER UP” after Democrats won the House majority last week, dismissed the warning.

“It appears Donald Trump has something to hide,” he said in a statement. “We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized DOJ or from the President’s lawyers.”

Democrats are preparing a broad oversight agenda that includes how the president and his family have grown wealthier since he returned to office, the handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, immigration enforcement and the war with Iran.

A pattern of threats

The letter follows Attorney General Todd Blanche’s refusal over the weekend to rule out criminal charges against members of Congress over their investigations. “It depends on what the crime is and what they have done,” Blanche told CNN.

Last week, President Trump called threats of investigations and impeachment “extortion at the highest level” and urged the Justice Department to look into them, Roll Call reported.

Threats of political reprisal over partisan investigations are common in Washington, but suggesting that a congressional probe itself could be a crime is not. House and Senate committees under both parties have broad authority to investigate the executive branch, and courts have rarely stopped them.