WH Confronts Dems Over Planned Probes  11/12 06:23

   The White House has issued a warning to Democrats over their planned probes 
into the Trump administration, going as far as claiming that such 
investigations -- a standard oversight function of Congress -- may amount to 
"blatant criminality."

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House has issued a warning to Democrats over 
their planned probes into the Trump administration, going as far as claiming 
that such investigations -- a standard oversight function of Congress -- may 
amount to "blatant criminality."

   White House counsel Will Scharf issued the warning in a letter dated Monday 
to Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

   Garcia most likely would chair the powerful panel in the new 
Democratic-controlled Congress that is seated in January. Garcia warned Trump 
officials to "lawyer up" as his party was on the way to stunning victories in 
last week's midterm election.

   In response, Scharf wrote that "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." 
The letter's existence was first reported by Punchbowl News.

   It's just the latest shot across the bow as the White House prepares to 
square off against newly empowered Democrats in the House and Senate next year, 
a showdown with major implications for congressional authority and the balance 
of power between the branches of government.

   Garcia pushes back on the White House letter 

   Outside the Capitol on Wednesday, Garcia told reporters that "Donald Trump 
is clearly hiding something" and that Democrats "are not going to be threatened 
or intimidated."

   "The truth is that he needs to understand that Congress is a coequal branch 
of government," Garcia said.

   He doubled down on his "lawyer up" post after the election, saying the White 
House was "thin-skinned" and couldn't "take any sort of heat."

   "If you have abused the American public, you should lawyer up," Garcia said. 
"If you're a corporate CEO and you're ripping off the American people, you 
should lawyer up."

   Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda to look at how Trump and his 
family have become wealthier since he returned to office. The Republican 
president and his White House have long denied any wrongdoing.

   Garcia also wants to look at the administration's handling of the Jeffrey 
Epstein investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Other 
targets include Trump's White House ballroom and other construction projects, 
as well as the Trump family's role in mineral deals and Trump's crypto dealings 
with special envoy Steve Witkoff.

   The Republican chair of Oversight says the panel is 'very independent' 

   Kentucky Republican James Comer, the current chair of the Oversight 
Committee who conducted a wide-ranging investigation of former President Joe 
Biden and his family, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he had not 
yet read the letter from the White House, but stressed that the panel is "very 
independent."

   "Regardless of who is in the White House, there's always going to be a 
strong desire for the Oversight Committee to be a check and balance on the 
executive branch, regardless of the political scenario," Comer said.

   He said he thought Garcia's "lawyer up" comments were in "bad taste" but 
Democrats "won the election and it's going to be his committee. So if he gets 
out of line, I would assume that his members will try to rein him in."

   Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday that 
"there could be" a crime to investigate if rhetoric from Democrats turned 
threatening. He appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone during an 
appearance in Missouri this week, saying "Congress has oversight authority. It 
always has, it always will. The Department of Justice, the federal government, 
works with Congress to address questions they have -- whether it's through 
subpoenas or letters -- so we're not going to stop working with Congress."

   "Nothing I've said this weekend, or in the past, should suggest otherwise," 
he added.

   Still, Justice Department officials elsewhere were pushing back. Aaron 
Reitz, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Texas, wrote to 
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday, telling him to preserve all 
records relevant to his investigations.

   Blumenthal is poised to chair a powerful Senate investigative committee in 
January. Reitz called Blumenthal's efforts an "intent to deprive citizens of 
their core constitutional rights," pointing to his October letter to people who 
donated to the new White House ballroom.

   In response, Blumenthal said he "will not be intimidated."

   "The Trump administration is so afraid of transparency and oversight that 
they are weaponizing the Department of Justice to baselessly target Congress in 
direct violation of the Constitution," he said in a statement.

   Other lawmakers react to the White House's warning 

   Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Trump critic, said he 
hopes Democrats don't squander their new powers on "stupid things."

   "I hope they have real hearings about real things, not another Russia-gate," 
he said, referring to a previous congressional inquiry into ties between 
Trump's first presidential campaign in 2016 and Russia. Trump repeatedly 
denounced that investigation as a "hoax."

   "I think there is some real corruption there around the fringes," Massie 
said about Trump and some of those around the president. Massie lost his 
primary election to a Trump-backed GOP challenger.

   Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., who is expected to be the next House Ethics 
Committee chairman, said he would not back down from any investigations because 
of warnings from the White House.

   "If they're trying to intimidate, at least for me, it's not going to get 
me," said DeSaulnier, who was a Republican before he switched to the Democratic 
Party in 2000. "I don't work for a mafia, a mob organization."