White House warns congressional Democrats: Investigating us may be a crime

WASHINGTON — Previewing the partisan battles to come, the White House fired a warning shot at House Democrats’ top investigator Wednesday.

The Trump administration is “monitoring” Democrats’ “abusive and capricious threats” to launch congressional probes, White House counsel Will Scharf said in a letter to Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who is poised to become chairman of the powerful Oversight Committee starting in January.

And, Scharf warned, those threats may be criminal and warrant their own executive branch investigations. His letter was shared with NBC News by a White House official.

While threats of political reprisal for partisan investigations are commonplace, the suggestion of a congressional probe constituting criminality is not.

When President Joe Biden occupied the White House, and Republicans took control of Congress, Democrats cried foul that Trump’s allies were only interested in launching partisan probes that damaged their political enemies.

But those high-profile investigations continued unimpeded. House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., led probes into the international business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden.

In the letter dated Monday, Scharf rattled off numerous examples of Democratic lawmakers making cavalier threats of issuing subpoenas. For example, Rep. Analilia Mejia, D-N.J., wrote on X, “We’re going…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business