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Democratic lawmaker Robert Garcia denounced a White House letter as an unconstitutional attack on legislative branch.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has issued a letter to a leading Democratic lawmaker, accusing his party of seeking to “abuse” its power by pursuing investigations into executive officials.
The letter, sent on Monday and released to the public on Wednesday, was addressed to Democratic Representative Robert Garcia of California.
Garcia is set to chair the oversight committee in the House of Representatives when the chamber’s new Democratic majority is sworn in on January 3.
“It appears Donald Trump has something to hide,” Garcia responded in a statement on Wednesday. “Congress has wide latitude to conduct investigations and oversight, an authority inherent in the power to legislate.”
The letter, however, alleges that recent statements by Garcia and other Democrats suggest that the congressional investigations they plan to pursue go beyond Congress’s constitutional authority.
“I write to remind you of the foundational limits that the Constitution imposes on congressional investigations and subpoenas, which you and members of the new Congress have evinced a clear intent to transgress,” White House lawyer William Scharf wrote in the letter.
Scharf argued that congressional Democrats were seeking to “exercise powers of criminal prosecution”, which fall to the executive branch and the judiciary.
He further accused lawmakers like Garcia of intending to “intimidate and to interfere with the lawful functioning of government”.
“Threats to executive branch officials designed to deter them from public service, or process designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient may cross the line into blatant criminality,” Scharf added.
The letter did not elaborate on what actions the White House might take if Democrats carry out their promised inquiries. It follows similar threats from President Trump.
“The Democrats are going around threatening a lot of people,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Saturday. “This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this.”
Garcia and other Democrats, however, have indicated that their aim is to perform their legislative oversight functions.
In his statement on Wednesday, Garcia argued that it was the Trump administration, not the incoming Congress, that was overstepping its bounds.
“The Trump Administration continues to weaponize the government with threats of unconstitutional attacks on Congress,” Garcia said in Wednesday’s statement.
“We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized [Department of Justice] or from the President’s lawyers.”
In the November 3 midterm elections, Democrats won significant majorities in both chambers of Congress, flipping them from Republican control.
Once the new Congress is sworn in, those majorities will allow the Democrats to take control of committees charged with conducting hearings and issuing subpoenas for officials to answer questions under oath.
In recent days, Garcia and other lawmakers have pledged to do exactly that. Garcia has said repeatedly this month that Trump officials should “lawyer up” and be ready to be subpoenaed.
The White House cited that comment, as well as several others by Democrats in its letter this week.
Representative-elect Katy Padilla Stout, for instance, reiterated Garcia’s rallying cry, advising “corrupt officials and billionaires” with the following line on social media: “Lawyer up, clear your schedules, & put some makeup on for the cameras.”
Another recently elected Democrat, Richard Ojeda of North Carolina, posted a similar message, anticipating a subpoena for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“Can’t wait to watch him squirm in hearing room,” Ojeda wrote.
Both comments were included in Scharf’s letter to Garcia as examples of “abusive and capricious threats” to executive officials.
Hegseth is likely to be among the officials subpoenaed in the new year, given his role in several military actions that bypassed congressional authorisation.
On Tuesday, House Democrats failed to muster enough votes to keep an impeachment resolution against Hegseth from being shelved.
But the move to impeach Hegseth could be up for consideration again after the Democratic majority is sworn in.
Tuesday’s impeachment resolution had been publicly supported by Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who could become the House speaker in January.
Garcia has also said he will use the House Oversight Committee to look into other issues, including potential ties between Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The committee, currently led by Republicans, issued a report this week saying there was no evidence to connect Trump with Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring. Instead, it blamed Democrats for being “obsessed” with trying to connect Trump to the case, calling their efforts an “unfounded witch hunt”.