A lawyer who made a "misguided" threat against Democrats last week could make things "very painful" for the Trump administration, according to a new analysis.
Last week, Department of Justice lawyer Will Scharf sent a letter to Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) threatening to prosecute him for telling Trump administration officials to "lawyer up" after Democrats won majorities in both houses of Congress. Scharf said he would prosecute Garcia for what he described as "unlawful" subpoenas.
Matt Ford of The New Republic argued in a new analysis that Scharf's threat could backfire on the Trump administration.
"Scharf’s letter — and the sentiment behind it — is misguided," Ford wrote. "Two years of unified Republican governance appears to have left him and White House officials with a false impression of how the U.S. government actually works."
"Oversight is Congress’s gentlest tool to rein in a rogue presidency," he added. "If the White House doesn’t cooperate or comply, a simple majority of lawmakers can make things very painful for them very quickly."
Ford also noted that there is an inherent irony in Scharf's threat, even if it is legally dubious.
"Scharf’s sentiment is still worth rejecting," Ford wrote. "It would be heartening to see at least one person in the Trump White House express concern about starting legal proceedings that are 'designed to deter' someone 'from public service' or launching a legal process 'designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient.'"
Unfortunately, Scharf’s focus is on milquetoast 'threats to executive branch officials' instead of the much more frequent occurrence of threats by executive branch officials," he continued.