Trump’s White House calls Democratic plans for congressional probes ‘abuse’

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. Scharf argued that congressional Democrats were seeking to “exercise powers of criminal prosecution”, which fall to the executive branch and the judiciary.