2026-05-13T17:05:58.803Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
特约分析：
亚伦·布莱克
2小时前
发布时间：2026年5月13日 美国东部时间下午1:05
特朗普政府的高级官员从上任第一天起就明确表明，他们极度轻视国会，尤其是国会依据宪法履行的监督职责。
不妨看看前司法部长帕姆·邦迪的“黑名单”以及她在2月听证会上对道琼斯指数的信口开河，还有国防部长皮特·赫格斯近期过度对抗性的证词。总体策略似乎是攻击议员，以避免回答涉及敏感议题的哪怕是直截了当的问题——即便提问者是同为共和党的议员。
但很少有哪一次听证会能像联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔周二出席的国会听证会那样，集中体现出本届政府对问责制的彻底蔑视。
参议院拨款小组委员会的议员们就帕特尔执掌联邦调查局的诸多问题向他施压，其中包括《大西洋月刊》近期的一篇报道：帕特尔酗酒成性，令同事们感到不安（他已否认这些指控，并起诉了该媒体），以及他在美国冰球队在意大利冬奥夺冠后与队员们过度庆祝。
来自马里兰州的民主党参议员克里斯·范·霍伦的质询尤为激烈，他在开场陈述中严厉批评了帕特尔及其所谓的酗酒习惯。
轮到帕特尔回应时，他不仅否认了相关报道，还试图将矛头指向这位马里兰州民主党议员。
“唯一用纳税人的钱在萨尔瓦多与一名有帮派暴力前科的定罪强奸犯喝玛格丽特酒的人，就是你，”帕特尔对范·霍伦说道，“唯一在华盛顿特区罗比酒吧欠下7000美元酒吧账单的人，也是你。这间会议室里唯一在白天用纳税人的钱喝酒的人，就是你。”
特朗普政府的盟友们大肆追捧这段对话，并在社交媒体上广泛传播。
但帕特尔的这番言论存在四个问题——事实上，这位联邦调查局局长在短短20秒的证词中就抛出了所有这些不实之词。
帕特尔所指的是范·霍伦去年前往萨尔瓦多探望基尔马尔·阿布雷戈·加西亚的行程。阿布雷戈·加西亚是来自范·霍伦家乡州的无证移民，特朗普政府将其非法遣返至萨尔瓦多一座严酷的监狱。
但事实是：
- 阿布雷戈·加西亚并未有帮派犯罪前科。
- 他也未被定罪犯有强奸罪。
- 范·霍伦与阿布雷戈·加西亚合影时摆在桌上的“玛格丽特酒”显然是萨尔瓦多政府官员安排的摆拍。该国总统纳伊布·布克尔是特朗普的亲密盟友。
- 没有证据表明范·霍伦在萨尔瓦多之行或罗比酒吧事件中用纳税人的钱在白天饮酒。
帕特尔很快在X平台上发布了一张范·霍伦竞选财务报告的截图，显示2025年12月一笔7128美元的罗比酒吧消费账单。但这笔账单属于一般性“餐饮”费用，可涵盖食品和酒水，范·霍伦周二表示，这笔钱用于员工圣诞派对。
且无论这笔钱的具体用途是什么，都并非“纳税人的钱”，而是竞选资金。
（议员们通常会在餐厅或酒吧举办筹款活动或员工活动，可能产生高额账单并从竞选经费中列支。这或许存在问题，但绝非帕特尔所暗示的那种问题。）
即便帕特尔所谓的“纳税人的钱”指的是萨尔瓦多之行而非竞选活动，也没有证据表明范·霍伦喝了摆在桌上的酒水。事实上，他当时就表示：“我们两人都没碰那些酒。”
联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔周二在德克森参议院办公楼出席参议院拨款委员会商务、司法、科学及相关机构小组委员会听证会期间旁听。
温·麦克纳米/盖蒂图片社
萨尔瓦多总统纳伊布·布克尔在X平台上发布的一张照片显示参议员克里斯·范·霍伦与基尔马尔·阿曼多·阿布雷戈·加西亚会面。范·霍伦称，带有盐边的酒杯是布克尔的工作人员摆在桌上的，他和阿布雷戈·加西亚都未碰过。
纳伊布·布克尔/X
范·霍伦在听证会上指责帕特尔散布“右翼媒体的都市传说”。
政府多次歪曲此类事实，试图辩称阿布雷戈·加西亚是坏人，而民主党急于为一名无证移民辩护。他们反复声称已有证据证明阿布雷戈·加西亚参与帮派并犯下非移民类罪行，但至今并无此事。
（阿布雷戈·加西亚因涉嫌人口贩运被起诉，但甚至未被指控犯有强奸罪。）
但帕特尔在此背景下并非普通的政府官员。他是联邦调查局局长，在国会作证时需承担伪证罪的法律责任。但他却发表了可被合理理解为诋毁他人——包括阿布雷戈·加西亚和范·霍伦——的言论。
这一切都有违司法部的道德准则，该准则规定官员不得捏造他人信息或预先判定他人有罪。
（邦迪也无疑违反了这些准则。今年6月阿布雷戈·加西亚被起诉时，她在新闻发布会上声称阿布雷戈·加西亚犯下了起诉书中未提及的其他令人发指的罪行。）
显然，帕特尔在给阿布雷戈·加西亚贴上“有帮派暴力前科的定罪强奸犯”标签时并非口误。在随后的证词中，他再次称范·霍伦“与重罪犯共饮玛格丽特酒”，尽管阿布雷戈·加西亚再次并未有重罪定罪记录。
在一届常规政府中，此类证词本应引发人们要求帕特尔更正记录并收回其主张。即便帕特尔担心面临刑事起诉，共和党议员也可能会坚持要求他这么做，以维护国会对行政部门的监督职责。
但没人会幻想帕特尔会受到任何形式的问责。而特朗普第二次就职后，由共和党控制的国会似乎早已放弃维护其作为独立强大政府分支的职权与特权。
事实上，帕特尔并非过去一周唯一在国会作证时发表虚假言论的高级政府官员。
赫格斯上周三和周四也曾如此，他声称拜登政府在2024年向15个州的投票站部署了军队。
美国备受尊崇的制衡体系如今显然已彻底失效，官员们可以在证词中随心所欲地发言，只要言辞具有对抗性且能取悦特朗普即可。
Kash Patel and the Trump administration’s mockery of congressional hearings
2026-05-13T17:05:58.803Z / CNN
Analysis by
Aaron Blake
2 hr ago
PUBLISHED May 13, 2026, 1:05 PM ET
Top Trump administration officials have made it abundantly clear from Day One just how little regard they have for Congress, including and possibly especially its constitutional oversight duties.
Just look at former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s “burn book” and her riff on the Dow at her February hearings, or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s over-the-top combative testimony of late. The general strategy seems to revolve around attacking lawmakers to avoid answering even straightforward questions about dicey subjects — even if the questioner is a fellow Republican.
But rarely has an appearance epitomized the administration’s utter disdain for accountability like FBI Director Kash Patel’s congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee pressed Patel on a number of questions about his stewardship of the FBI, including a recent report in the Atlantic that he has alarmed colleagues with his excessive drinking (he has denied these claims and sued the publication) and his exorbitant celebrating with the US hockey team after its Olympic win in Italy.
Things got particularly testy with Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who read an opening statement particularly critical of Patel and his alleged drinking habits.
When Patel got the chance to respond, he wasn’t content to deny the reporting. He tried to flip it back on the Maryland Democrat.
“The only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you,” Patel told Van Hollen. “The only person that ran up a $7,000 bar tab in Washington, DC, at the Lobby Bar was you. The only individual in this room that has been drinking on the taxpayer dime during the day is you.”
Allies of President Donald Trump’s administration gobbled up the exchange and shared it far and wide on social media.
But there’s a problem with that Patel quote — four of them, in fact, all of which the FBI director managed to squeeze into just 20 seconds of testimony.
Patel’s allusion was to Van Hollen’s visit last year to El Salvador to check on the welfare of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia is the undocumented immigrant from Van Hollen’s home state whom the Trump administration illegally deported to a brutal El Salvador prison.
Except:
- Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of being in a gang.
- He has not been convicted of rape.
- The “margaritas” that were placed in front of Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia during a photo op were apparently staged by El Salvador government officials. President Nayib Bukele is a close Trump ally.
- There’s no evidence of Van Hollen day-drinking using taxpayer funds in either the El Salvador or the Lobby Bar incident.
Patel on X soon posted an image from Van Hollen’s campaign finance reports showing a $7,128 bill from December 2025 at the Lobby Bar. But the bill was for general “catering,” which can mean food as well as alcohol, and Van Hollen said Tuesday that it was for a staff holiday party.
And regardless of what the money was spent on, it wasn’t “on the taxpayer dime”; It was campaign money.
(Lawmakers commonly host fundraising or staff events at restaurants or bars that can rack up large tabs and charge it to the campaign. That might be problematic, but not for the reasons Patel suggested.)
Even if Patel’s “taxpayer dime” reference was to the Abrego Garcia meeting rather than the campaign event, there is no evidence Van Hollen drank what was placed in front of him in El Salvador. In fact, he said back then, “Neither of us touched the drinks.”
FBI Director Kash Patel looks on during a Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Tuesday.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
An image posted on X by El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele shows Sen. Chris Van Hollen meeting with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen says the salt rimmed glasses were placed on the table by Bukele’s staff and were not touched by Van Hollen nor Abrego Garcia.
Nayib Bukele/X
Van Hollen at the hearing accused Patel of spreading an “urban legend in right-wing media.”
These are the kinds of facts the administration has butchered many times over, as they’ve sought to argue Abrego Garcia is a bad guy and that Democrats were too anxious to defend an undocumented immigrant. They’ve repeatedly suggested it was proven that Abrego Garcia was in a gang and had committed non-immigration crimes, even though it still hasn’t been.
(Abrego Garcia has been indicted for alleged human trafficking, but he hasn’t even been charged with alleged rape.)
But Patel isn’t just any administration official in this context. He’s the FBI director, and he’s testifying to Congress under penalty of perjury. But he’s saying things that could logically be understood to impugn others — both Abrego Garcia and Van Hollen.
All of which is contrary to Justice Department ethics, which state that officials aren’t supposed to make false statements about people or prejudge someone’s guilt.
(Bondi, too, has quite arguably violated these standards. When Abrego Garcia was indicted in June, she in a press conference cited claims Abrego Garcia had committed other heinous crimes that weren’t even included in the indictment.)
And it’s pretty evident that Patel didn’t just trip over his words in labeling Abrego Garcia a “convicted gangbanging rapist.” Later in his testimony, he again cited Van Hollen supposedly “drinking margaritas with felons,” even though Abrego Garcia, again, has not been convicted of a felony.
In a typical administration, testimony like this would lead to questions about Patel correcting the record and withdrawing his claims. Even shy of Patel fearing criminal prosecution, Republicans might insist on it to assert Congress’ role in overseeing the executive branch.
But nobody has any illusions about any kind of accountability for Patel. And the GOP-controlled Congress seemingly gave up on protecting its prerogatives and status as a powerful, separate branch of government when Trump was inaugurated a second time.
Indeed, Patel isn’t even the only top administration official to make false statements in congressional testimony over the past week.
Hegseth did so last Wednesday and Thursday, when he claimed that the Biden administration had sent the military to polling places in 15 states in 2024.
The government’s revered system of checks and balances has apparently broken down so much now that officials can say whatever they want in testimony, as long as it’s combative and pleases Trump.