特朗普的謊言與麻煩
As of last week, the American public had been told that President Donald Trump’s doctor had certified he would be the “the healthiest individual ever elected.” That the president was happy with his legal team and would not hire a new lawyer. That he did not know about the $130,000 payment to a former pornographic film actress who claimed to have had an affair with him.
直到上週，美國公衆聽到的說法還是唐納德·特朗普總統的醫生已經證明他將是“有史以來最健康的當選總統”。總統對他的法律團隊很滿意，不會僱傭新律師。他對付給一名自稱與他有過一段風流韻事的前色情片女演員13萬美元（約合80萬元人民幣）一事不知情。As of this week, it turns out that the statement about his health was not actually from the doctor but had been dictated by Trump himself. That the president has split with the leaders of his legal team and hired the same new lawyer he had denied recruiting. And that Trump himself financed the $130,000 payment intended to buy the silence of the actress known as Stormy Daniels.
到了這一週，結果證明那份有關他健康狀況的聲明其實並不是出自醫生之手，而是特朗普自己口授的。總統已和他法律團隊的負責人分道揚鑣，並僱傭了一名新律師，正是他之前否認過的那個人。而付給女演員“暴風丹尼爾斯”(Stormy Daniels)的13萬美元封口費是特朗普自己出的。Even in the current political environment that some derisively call the post-truth world, the past few days have offered a head-spinning series of revelations that conflicted with the version of events Trump and his associates had previously provided. Whether called lies or misstatements, Trump’s history of falsehoods has been extensively documented, but the string of factual distortions that came to light this week could come back to haunt him.
即便是在當下被一些人嘲諷爲後真相世界的政治環境裏，過去幾天出現的一系列與特朗普及其同事先前提供的版本相沖突的內幕消息，也令人頭暈目眩。無論是叫它們謊言還是虛假陳述，特朗普說謊的歷史已經被廣泛記錄在案，但本週曝光的一連串歪曲事實的行爲可能會再次困擾他。
The shifting statements also illustrated starkly why some of the president’s lawyers have urged him not to submit to an interview by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether Trump’s campaign cooperated with Russia during the 2016 presidential election and whether the president obstructed justice to thwart that investigation. Those lawyers have said Mueller is setting a perjury trap for Trump. What they do not say publicly is that they worry the president would be unable to avoid contradicting himself.
不斷變換的表述也有力地說明了總統的一些律師爲什麼勸他不要接受特別檢察官羅伯特·穆勒 (Robert Mueller)的面談。穆勒正在調查2016年競選期間，特朗普的競選團隊是否與俄羅斯進行過合作，以及總統是否爲了阻撓該調查而妨礙司法。這些律師說，穆勒正在給特朗普設計一個僞證罪陷阱。他們沒有公開說出來的是，他們擔心總統無法做到避免自相矛盾。Trump has for years presented selective and creative accounts of his life and businesses — “truthful hyperbole,” as he famously put it in his first book — and at times this habit has gotten him in trouble. Even after being elected president, he paid $25 million to settle lawsuits accusing him of fraud for hoodwinking students who signed up for his now-defunct, for-profit Trump University.
多年來，特朗普對自己的生活和企業進行了有選擇性的和創造性的描述——他在自己的第一本書中將其稱之爲“誠實的誇張”。有時候，這個習慣會給他帶來麻煩。甚至在當選總統後，他還拿出2500萬美元了結因爲欺騙在營利性質的特朗普大學(Trump University)報了名的學生，而被控詐騙的官司。特朗普大學現已不復存在。And to be sure, not every misleading statement is equally meaningful. In March, The New York Times reported that Trump was in discussions to hire Emmet T. Flood, a veteran Washington lawyer.
當然，並不是每一次不實表述都同樣有意義。3月，《紐約時報》報道特朗普正在討論僱傭華盛頓資深律師艾米特·弗洛德(Emmet T. Flood)。Trump reacted angrily. “The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out,” he wrote on Twitter. “Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow.” Dowd resigned 11 days later. Cobb announced his resignation this week. He will be replaced by Flood.
特朗普反應激烈。“快不行了的《紐約時報》故意寫了一篇假新聞，說我對我的法律團隊在俄羅斯一事上的表現不滿，打算再找一個律師幫忙，”他在Twitter上寫道。“錯了。我對我的律師約翰·多德(John Dowd)、泰·柯布(Ty Cobb)和傑伊·塞庫羅(Jay Sekulow)非常滿意。”11天后，多德辭職。本週，柯布宣佈辭職。代替他的正是弗洛德。Under the unforgiving glare of federal prosecutors, however, misrepresentations carry far greater jeopardy. In nearly a year on the case, Mueller has shown that he is more than willing to charge associates of Trump with lying to investigators; independent lawyers have said it would be reckless for the president’s lawyers to allow him to be interviewed. Even supporters who maintain that Trump is essentially a truth teller acknowledge that he can be loose with details.
然而，在聯邦檢察官嚴厲的目光下，不實陳述的危害要大得多。在調查該案的近一年時間裏，穆勒已經表明他非常願意控告特朗普的同事向調查人員撒謊。獨立律師稱，總統的律師允許他接受面談是魯莽之舉。就連堅持認爲特朗普本質上誠實的其支持者也承認，他在細節上可能不準確。For Trump, it is about creating a narrative that suits his desired image, and dictating the terms of his own life — in media coverage, in his business, in politics, even in his medical care. But he now risks losing his grip on the storyline he has long sought to control, in part because of his own treatment of associates like his doctor and the lawyer who paid the porn star.
對特朗普來說，這事關打造符合自己理想形象的敘事和支配那些描述自己生活的話語——這些在媒體報道、商業領域、政治領域，甚至是他醫療報告中的話語。但現在，他可能會失去對他故事情節的掌控——儘管他一直試圖將其捏在自己手裏，造成這個局面的部分原因，在於他對待同事的方式上，比如他的醫生和曾向豔星付錢的律師。This week’s revelation about the true origin of the doctor’s statement may not have surprised many. When Dr. Harold N. Bornstein released a letter in December 2015 saying that Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” few believed it was authentic. It contained the exact language about “strength and stamina” that the candidate often used to describe himself.
本週，有關醫生聲明真實來路的曝光，可能不會令很多人感到驚訝。當哈羅德·N·伯恩斯坦(Harold N. Bornstein)在2015年12月公佈的信件中稱特朗普將是“有史以來最健康的當選總統”時，並沒什麼人相信它的真實性。其中還包含了這位候選人常常用來形容自己的“力量和耐力”用語。Bornstein confirmed this week that Trump had dictated the letter, a disclosure that stemmed from his own split with the president. After he told The Times last year that Trump used hair-loss medicine, the president was angry and embarrassed, according to aides. Trump, who often calculates the risks of angering people who know intimate details about him, did not express his frustration publicly. But he sent aides to seize his medical records from Bornstein, who felt burned enough by the incident to break his silence.
伯恩斯坦本週證實，這封信由特朗普口授。這次披露源自他與總統的關係破裂。據特朗普的助手說，在他去年告訴時報特朗普使用過治療脫髮的藥物後，總統感到憤怒且尷尬。特朗普常常計算着激怒那些瞭解自己私密細節的人的風險，但並未公開表達自己的憤怒。但他派助手收走了因爲太過憤怒而打破沉默的伯恩斯坦手上的醫療記錄。Likewise, Trump has to worry about whether his brusque treatment of his longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, might come back to hurt him. Cohen, facing an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, originally said he made the $130,000 payment to the porn actress, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, from a home equity line of credit and that he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or campaign.
同樣，特朗普還得擔心受他粗暴對待的長期律師邁克爾·D·科恩(Michael D. Cohen)是否會反過來傷害他。在紐約接受聯邦檢察官調查的科恩起初表示，他曾用房屋淨值貸款向名爲斯蒂芬妮·克利福德(Stephanie Clifford)的豔星支付了13萬美元，且沒有獲得特朗普組織或團隊的報銷。Trump, asked by reporters on Air Force One last month whether he knew about the payment to Clifford, said “no.” He likewise said he did not know where the money came from.
上個月，在“空軍一號”上被記者問到他是否知道向克利福德支付的款項時，特朗普說“不知道”。他還表示自己不知道這筆錢的來源。But in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday night, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor now serving as a lawyer for the president, said Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the money.
但在週三晚間福克斯新聞(Fox News)的採訪中，前紐約市長、現任總統律師的魯道夫·W·朱利安尼(Rudolph W. Giuliani)表示特朗普已給科恩報銷了這筆錢。
In a follow-up interview Thursday morning, Giuliani said Trump did not actually learn the specifics until recently. “He didn’t know the details of this until we knew the details of this, which was a couple weeks ago,” Giuliani said. “Maybe not even a couple — maybe 10 days ago.”
在週四上午的後續採訪中，朱利安尼稱特朗普直到最近才真正瞭解具體情況。“他在幾個星期前對此都是不瞭解的，也就是在我們知道具體情況之後，”朱利安尼說。“可能都沒幾個星期——可能就十天以前。”In his Wednesday night interview, Giuliani also offered a different reason for Trump’s decision to fire James B. Comey as FBI director last year. When Trump first announced the dismissal, he explained it by saying that Comey was “not able to effectively lead the bureau” and cited memos criticizing his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server. The next day, Trump told Lester Holt on NBC News that he would have fired Comey regardless of the memos and that he had the Russia investigation on his mind.
在週三晚間的採訪中，朱利安尼還說了特朗普去年決定解僱聯邦調查局(FBI)局長詹姆斯·B·科米(James B. Comey)的另一個原因。特朗普首次宣佈撤職時，他的解釋是科米“不能有效領導調查局”，並援引了科米在處理希拉里·克林頓(Hillary Clinton)郵件服務器事件時的批評備忘錄。第二天，特朗普告訴NBC新聞的萊斯特·霍爾特(Lester Holt)，不論有沒有備忘錄，他都會解僱科米，還說通俄門調查壓在他的心上。On Fox, Giuliani attributed the decision to Comey’s refusal to publicly exonerate Trump in the Russia investigation. “He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation,” Giuliani said. Since then, Mueller’s office has told the White House that Trump is a subject, though not a target, of the investigation.
在福克斯新聞的採訪中，朱利安尼認爲撤職的決定是因爲科米拒絕在通俄調查中公開證明特朗普無罪。“他解僱了科米的諸多原因之一，是科米不願說他不是調查的目標，”朱利安尼說道。此後，穆勒的部門就告訴白宮，特朗普雖然不是調查目標，但他是調查對象。
