美国国家公共电台 NPR--Trump's history of trying to stop investigations and withhold records

Trump¹'s history of trying to stop investigations³ and withhold⁴ records

Transcript⁵

Critics of the FBI search of ex-President Trump's Mar-A-Lago estate say he had been cooperating and a raid was unnecessary. But Trump has a record of trying to fend⁶ off probes and withhold records.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Critics of the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's residence in Florida say Trump had been cooperating and a raid was unnecessary. But Trump has a record of trying to fend off investigations and withholding⁷ business and personal records. Ilya Marritz covers Trump's legal battles for NPR, and he's with us now from New York. Ilya, can we start with just a quick snapshot of some of these recent Trump investigations?

ILYA MARRITZ, BYLINE⁸: Yeah, there's a very relevant and recent example in the state of New York, where I am, where the former president was held in contempt of court and fined over $100,000 just this spring for failing to cooperate with a request for documents. The state attorney general here, Letitia James, has been doing a civil investigation² of Trump business practices. And again and again, her lawyers have said Trump is stonewalling them. For instance, he only produced 10 documents that were in his personal possession. The judge overseeing this finally held Trump in contempt of court. It is the only time this has happened with a former president, as far as I know. It played out at the same time that investigators⁹ were looking for White House documents taken to Mar-A-Lago.

MART?NEZ: Now, a lot of this goes back to his time as a businessman. I mean, how far back does this go?

MARRITZ: There's so many examples of Trump trying to stymie¹⁰ probes into his company. One that stands out for me is from the year 2000. Back then, there was a move to legalize gambling¹¹ in New York, so Trump mounted a secret campaign to fight casino legalization here because it would have threatened his casinos in Atlantic City. Regulators finally figured out what was going on. Trump did not admit wrongdoing, but he agreed to pay a quarter-million dollars, which was then the biggest lobbying fine in New York history. It's a revealing look at how Trump used secrecy¹² to advance his business interests.

MART?NEZ: And he brought secrecy to the White House as well.

MARRITZ: Very much so. In 2019, I interviewed a former federal records analyst¹³ named Solomon Lartey. His job was collecting presidential records for preservation¹⁴, and the work was pretty much the same from Clinton to Bush to Obama. But it changed under Trump because Trump had this habit of ripping up documents with his own hands. Lartey told me they developed procedures for dealing¹⁵ with the pieces, like precisely¹⁶ what kind of tape was to be used to reassemble the documents.

And there's so many more examples of this kind of thing. Trump resisted publishing logs of visitors to the White House. He didn't cooperate with the 2019 impeachment¹⁷ probe, and he fought a House committee's efforts to review his tax returns. Now, just yesterday, a three-judge panel ruled that that House committee can see his tax returns that they've been asking for since 2019. The lesson here is that Trump is very good at running out the clock.

MART?NEZ: How does this FBI search at Mar-A-Lago relate to other Justice Department efforts to get documents from the former president?

MARRITZ: Former prosecutors¹⁸ have told us that federal raids aren't executed if there's another way to get documents. So what that suggests is that the Justice Department's requests for records at some point were frustrated¹⁹. And we've seen that in other investigations as well - most notably²⁰, the House Select Committee's January 6 investigation, where Trump went to the Supreme²¹ Court to try to block the committee from getting documents. And he failed, but there are still gaps. The schedules and phone logs for Donald Trump from the afternoon of January 6, 2021, are blank. So big picture - there's a lot of probes around this former president. Of course, investigators want to see documents, and in almost every case, there has been a fight.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Ilya Marritz. Thanks a lot.

MARRITZ: You're very welcome.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

3 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

4 withhold   

v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡

参考例句：

• It was unscrupulous of their lawyer to withhold evidence.他们的律师隐瞒证据是不道德的。
• I couldn't withhold giving some loose to my indignation.我忍不住要发泄一点我的愤怒。

5 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

6 fend   

v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开

参考例句：

• I've had to fend for myself since I was 14.我从十四岁时起就不得不照料自己。
• He raised his arm up to fend branches from his eyes.他举手将树枝从他眼前挡开。

7 withholding   

扣缴税款

参考例句：

• She was accused of withholding information from the police. 她被指控对警方知情不报。
• The judge suspected the witness was withholding information. 法官怀疑见证人在隐瞒情况。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 stymie   

v.妨碍，阻挠

参考例句：

• Companies have been stymied by the length of time it takes to reach an agreement.由于耗时过长，各公司一直未能达成协议。
• Relief efforts have been stymied in recent weeks by armed gunmen.最近几周的救援工作一直受到武装分子的阻挠。

11 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

12 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

13 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

14 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

15 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

16 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

17 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

18 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

19 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

21 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。