Democratic oversight chair says White House tries to bully Congress into backing off investigations
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Ranking member Robert Garcia said the White House’s warning to Democratic investigators is a naked attempt to choke off oversight, while White House counsel William Scharf claimed the inquiries have no legitimate legislative purpose.
Ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, said the White House’s recent letter to Democratic investigators looks like a direct effort to obstruct congressional scrutiny of the administration. The letter, signed by White House counsel William Scharf, warned that the Democrats’ proposed investigations could "cross the line into blatant criminality" and claimed that congressional inquiries must serve a legitimate legislative purpose and not be used to pursue prosecutions.
Garcia responded that Congress gets its authority from the Constitution, not from the White House, and stressed the responsibility of lawmakers to confront corruption and abuse of power. He added that the legislative branch will keep doing its job despite the warning.
The letter also cited remarks by several incoming Democratic representatives, including Richard Ojeda, Katy Padilla Stout, and Yassamin Ansari, and attacked Garcia’s "Lawyer Up" campaign as intimidation rather than legislation. Garcia dismissed those claims, saying the oversight committee will not be intimidated by what he described as threats from the Department of Justice and the president’s legal team.