About that Bondi-Trump Lawfare
本文探讨了前司法部长帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）及其对ActBlue的调查争议。最初，媒体（如《纽约时报》）将对ActBlue的调查描述为针对特朗普政治对手的“法律战”。然而，最新披露的信息显示，ActBlue曾解雇其律师事务所（Covington & Burling），因为该事务所对其向国会声称的关于非法外国捐款的说法提出了“危险信号”。作者批评《纽约时报》最初的偏颇报道，以及其一些专栏作家（如Jeffrey Toobin）未能承认新事实。文章核心在于质疑外国资金是否非法流入美国政治竞选以影响选举结果，并暗示《纽约时报》可能在追逐一个“虚假”外国影响故事的同时，错失了一个“真实”的故事。
As Attorney General Pam Bondi departs the Justice Department, there is much commentary alleging that her investigations have been politically driven and aimed at partisan opponents of President Donald Trump. Politicized law enforcement certainly is a tyranny. It’s also true that prominent opponents of Mr. Trump are not entitled to a shield against scrutiny that is unavailable to ordinary Americans. Now a case that was portrayed last year in the media as lawfare against a Trump adversary is suddenly looking like something else entirely.
帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）是美国共和党政治家，曾担任佛罗里达州总检察长。在唐纳德·特朗普总统任期内，她曾是其政府的坚定支持者和顾问，并在特朗普的弹劾审判中担任辩护团队成员。本文中提到她离任司法部，并卷入对其调查政治动机的争议。
“法律战”（Lawfare）是一个合成词，由“law”（法律）和“warfare”（战争）组成，通常指利用法律系统作为实现政治、军事或经济目标的工具，而非纯粹追求司法公正。它可以包括滥用诉讼、法律程序或国际法来削弱对手、制造障碍或争取宣传优势。在本文中，它指的是将法律调查用作政治打击的手段。
Reid Epstein and Shane Goldmacher report for the New York Times:
Now compare the preceding four paragraphs to the first four paragraphs of a story Mr.
ActBlue executives deserve the presumption of innocence just like everybody else. The ActBlue crew got a lot more than that from the Times’s 2025 account, which essentially dismissed the investigation as a partisan abuse in the article’s second sentence. This line would be repeated in numerous Times news and opinion pieces over the succeeding weeks and months.
ActBlue是一个美国非营利组织，提供在线捐款平台，主要服务于民主党候选人、进步派组织和非营利机构。它简化了小额捐款流程，使其成为民主党筹款的关键工具。文章中对其接受非法外国捐款的调查是核心争议点。
Now the Times tells us that when it published its story in April 2025, the blue-chip Covington & Burling had already been fired by ActBlue after raising red flags about ActBlue’s claims to Congress regarding the risk of collecting illegal foreign donations.
Covington & Burling 是一家享誉全球的美国顶级律师事务所，以其在公司法、诉讼、政府事务和监管合规方面的专业知识而闻名。该事务所在华盛顿特区拥有强大的影响力，经常为大型企业、政府机构和高知名度个人提供法律服务。文章中提到ActBlue解雇了这家律师事务所，因为他们对ActBlue向国会提出的主张提出了“危险信号”。
Perhaps Times readers should now credit the paper for starting to clean up the mess it made of this story last year.
But not everyone who writes for the paper seems eager to acknowledge fault. Last year in the Times opinion pages Jeffrey Toobin was among those casting the ActBlue case as one of a series of investigations intended to punish Trump enemies. He called the president’s rationale for scrutinizing the organization “weak” and lamented that ActBlue “has to hire lawyers and incur other costs that will detract from its mission of winning elections against Mr. Trump’s party.” Now we know that ActBlue had to hire new lawyers after it fired the ones who raised red flags about its claims to Congress.
杰弗里·图宾（Jeffrey Toobin）是一位著名的美国法律分析师、作家和记者。他曾是《纽约客》的撰稿人，也是CNN的资深法律分析师。他以对美国法律和政治事件的深入评论而闻名。文章中提到他最初将ActBlue案视为政治打击，但后来对新事实避而不谈。
Mr. Toobin, not one to be embarrassed, now publishes a new screed this week against Mr. Trump and Ms. Bondi but for some reason doesn’t mention ActBlue.
Meanwhile, Mr.
Saying that one’s statements were “accurate in the context in which they were written” probably wouldn’t sound especially compelling if shouted from the rooftops. Some readers may also be skeptical that lawyers as experienced as Covington’s would provide the kind of shoddy service claimed by Ms. Wallace-Jones. Was it purely coincidental that she fired the law firm that had questioned her claims to Congress?
Of course the implications of this story go beyond the accuracy of statements made to the legislative branch of our government. The underlying question is whether foreign actors were able to funnel money illegally into U.S. political campaigns to influence election outcomes.
After years of promoting a false foreign influence story, is it possible the Times has now discovered a real one?
James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival” and also the co-author of “Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts and Bailouts at Citi.