美国国家公共电台 NPR Long Sealed, Newly Released Watergate 'Road Map' Could Guide Russia Probe

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

This past week, one of the last remaining secrets from the Watergate scandal was finally revealed. It's a report that prosecutors² sent to Congress 44 years ago. Experts say the document could offer a precedent³ for how the Russia investigation⁴ moves forward today. NPR national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson reports.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE⁵: By early 1974, Watergate special prosecutor¹ Leon Jaworski concluded he would not pursue an indictment⁶ against President Richard Nixon.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LEON JAWORSKI: For good reasons and reasons that I thought were proper, I did not think that he should be indicted⁷ the same time that the others were.

JOHNSON: Instead, he shared the grand jury's findings with the House judiciary committee.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JAWORSKI: I gave them the sum total of the evidence that we had assembled up to that point. We called it a road map in our office because it was just that.

JOHNSON: Those findings arrived in a sealed report dated March 1, 1974.

DEANA EL-MALLAWANY: For 44 years, the road map lived only in the public imagination. And today, it lives in the public record.

JOHNSON: That's Deana El-Mallawany. She's a lawyer at the nonprofit group Protect Democracy. Protect Democracy helped convince the chief judge of the district court in Washington to finally lift the seal on the road map and shed light on an episode that demonstrates how the system worked.

EL-MALLAWANY: It's been really exciting to learn about this example in history where you actually do have the three branches of government working together to ensure that no one's above the law, not even the president, and that the facts become public.

JOHNSON: But it's not just a matter for history. One of the arguments for releasing the Watergate road map bears on the current investigation of President Trump⁸'s campaign. Benjamin Wittes is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He's one of the people who was pushing to release the old documents.

BENJAMIN WITTES: The president's lawyers are telling everyone who will listen that Bob Mueller is writing a report. And that raises the question of what kind of report that could be, what it could look like, who the audience for it is.

JOHNSON: There aren't many precedents⁹ for how that report might look. One is from independent counsel Ken¹⁰ Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton 20 years ago. The Starr report contained lurid¹¹ descriptions of Clinton's affair with White House intern¹² Monica Lewinsky. And it became the focus of a lot of criticism. By contrast, the Watergate road map is a series of bare-bones statements, backed up by grand jury testimony¹³ or documents to support its points - again, Ben Wittes.

WITTES: It contains no judgments¹⁴, no argumentation, very spare recitation of facts.

JOHNSON: Wittes says that sounds familiar. The current special counsel, Robert Mueller, hasn't made any public statements since he was named to investigate possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign. He's letting his work speak for him. And if Mueller decides to write a report, one that would go to the deputy attorney general and, eventually, to Congress, the Watergate model is one he might follow - Deana El-Mallawany of Protect Democracy.

EL-MALLAWANY: The road map sets a precedent for the facts of special counsel Mueller's investigation becoming public through Congress and serving as the basis for whatever accountability is necessary.

JOHNSON: It's not clear where the Russia special counsel is headed next. But that's a secret that won't take 44 years to reveal. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

1 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

2 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。

3 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

4 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。

5 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。

6 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

7 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

8 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。

9 precedents   

引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例

参考例句：

• There is no lack of precedents in this connection. 不乏先例。
• He copied after bad precedents. 他仿效恶例。

10 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

11 lurid   

adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的

参考例句：

• The paper gave all the lurid details of the murder.这份报纸对这起凶杀案耸人听闻的细节描写得淋漓尽致。
• The lurid sunset puts a red light on their faces.血红一般的夕阳映红了他们的脸。

12 intern   

v.拘禁，软禁；n.实习生

参考例句：

• I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
• The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。

13 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

14 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。