时代周刊:“善后者”的神秘资金(5)

A lawyer for Columbus Nova wrote in a statement May 8

哥伦布诺瓦的一名律师在5月8日的一份声明中写道，

that the firm’s payment to Essential Consultants¹ had no connection to Vekselberg.

该公司支付给必要咨询的费用和维克塞尔伯格无关。

THE WHITE HOUSE brushes off the Avenatti allegations.

白宫没有理睬阿文纳蒂的指控。

“This is yet another irrelevant² thing that is made into a big thing,” Giuliani told TIME.

朱利安尼在接受本刊采访时表示：“又是一件被炒得沸沸扬扬却跟当前的问题毫不相干的事。”

Avenatti, for his part, says more is coming.

阿文纳蒂责表示，还有更多猛料等着特朗普。

“We’ve only begun to scratch the surface relating to the information we have,” he tells TIME.

他在接受本刊采访时表示：“这只是小打小闹，我们手里的信息还多得是。”

“We have a whole host of additional information relating to Essential Consultants.”

“我们还有大量关于必要咨询的其他信息。”

That’s bad news for Trump³.

这对特朗普来说无疑是个坏消息。

“There’s certainly a corruption⁴ angle here,” says former federal prosecutor⁵ Renato Mariotti,

“这里面肯定有腐败问题，”前联邦检察官雷纳托·马里奥蒂说，

noting that it is not clear what Cohen was being paid to do.

他又指出，那些钱是为了让科恩做什么，目前还不清楚。

“He doesn’t appear to have any set of skills that can answer (that).”

“他似乎没有任何能回答这一问题的有关技能。”

The disclosures make clear that the Justice Department’s investigations⁷

那些爆料清楚地表明，司法部的调查

are in fact expanding and accelerating into territory Trump has previously⁸ said the lawmen have no business looking at.

已经向特朗普之前说司法人员无需过问的领域加速扩张了。

Experts were quick to place the range of possible legal liabilities from negligible to catastrophic:

专家们很快就把特朗普可能的法律责任的范围从微不足道扩大到了灾难性的程度：

possible lines of inquiry⁹ include bank fraud, campaign-finance or Lobbying Disclosure Act violations¹⁰, and even bribery¹¹.

可能的调查范围扩大到了银行欺诈、违反竞选融资规定或《游说公开法》，甚至是行贿方面。

“If the money passed through a shell to Trump,” wrote Harvard law professor Noah Feldman in Bloomberg,

“如果那笔钱是通过一家空壳公司过手给特朗普的，”哈佛大学法学教授诺亚·费尔德曼在彭博社的新闻中写道，

“it will look as if Trump’s fixer set up a shell company to accept bribes¹² on the President’s behalf.”

“就会给人一种负责给特朗普摆平各种问题的迈克尔·科恩成立了一家空壳公司，代总统受贿的印象。”

Trump campaigned against Washington corruption,

特朗普竞选的时候曾拿政府搞腐败做文章，

and the work of Cohen’s company may be a particularly stark¹³ example of it:

科恩这家公司的运作或许恰好就是政府腐败的一个特别鲜明的例子，

money flowing in from foreign interests and big corporations with business before the President,

资金从总统上任之前就已经存在的外国利益集团和大公司流入了必要咨询，

producing undisclosed results on the other side.

给另一端带来某些尚未披露的结果。

Which means that when it comes to questionable¹⁴ behavior by Trump and his allies,

这就意味着，当涉及到特朗普及其盟友的可疑行为时，

the President is no longer liable just to the traditional square-jawed work of Justice Department prosecutors¹⁵,

总统就不仅仅只需要面对司法部检察官一贯的那种刚性的调查工作了，

but also to the slash-and-burn tactics he himself rose to power employing.

还要面对他自己在攫取权利时运用的大动干戈策略。

Avenatti is the first to acknowledge he is turning Trump’s playbook against him.

阿文纳蒂是第一个承认对特朗普以其人之道还治其人之身的人。

The California lawyer says that back when he was in college at the University of Pennsylvania,

这位加州律师说，他在宾夕法尼亚大学读书时有一门课，

he took a class where Trump’s longtime hard-knuckled political adviser¹⁶ Roger Stone made a memorable¹⁷ guest appearance.

长期以来一直很强硬的特朗普政治顾问罗杰·斯通曾作为嘉宾出现过，还给学生们留下了令人难忘的印象。

“You could say that Roger Stone taught me a lot of the skills I’m using today,” Avenatti says wryly¹⁸.

“可以这么说，我今天用的很多手段都是从罗杰·斯通那里学来的，”阿文纳蒂挖苦地说。

Whether that ends up being more damaging to Trump than the traditional legal investigation⁶ remains¹⁹ to be seen,

他的指控是否会给特朗普造成比比司法部传统的调查更大的伤害，这一点还有待观察，

but it’s clear now that the President faces a whole new kind of fight.

但很明显，总统正面临着一场全新的战斗。

1 consultants   

顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生

参考例句：

• a firm of management consultants 管理咨询公司
• There're many consultants in hospital. 医院里有很多会诊医生。

2 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

3 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。

4 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

5 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。

6 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。

7 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。

8 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

9 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

10 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

11 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

12 bribes   

n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• corrupt officials accepting bribes 接受贿赂的贪官污吏

13 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

14 questionable   

adj.可疑的，有问题的

参考例句：

• There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。

15 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。

16 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

17 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

18 wryly   

adv. 挖苦地，嘲弄地

参考例句：

• Molly smiled rather wryly and said nothing. 莫莉苦笑着，一句话也没说。
• He smiled wryly, then closed his eyes and gnawed his lips. 他狞笑一声，就闭了眼睛，咬着嘴唇。 来自子夜部分

19 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。