特朗普的谎言与麻烦

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.

直到上周，美国公众听到的说法还是唐纳德·特朗普总统的医生已经证明他将是“有史以来最健康的当选总统”。总统对他的法律团队很满意，不会雇佣新律师。他对付给一名自称与他有过一段风流韵事的前色情片女演员13万美元（约合80万元人民币）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.

到了这一周，结果证明那份有关他健康状况的声明其实并不是出自医生之手，而是特朗普自己口授的。总统已和他法律团队的负责人分道扬镳，并雇佣了一名新律师，正是他之前否认过的那个人。而付给女演员“暴风丹尼尔斯”(Stormy Daniels)的13万美元封口费是特朗普自己出的。

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.

即便是在当下被一些人嘲讽为后真相世界的政治环境里，过去几天出现的一系列与特朗普及其同事先前提供的版本相冲突的内幕消息，也令人头晕目眩。无论是叫它们谎言还是虚假陈述，特朗普说谎的历史已经被广泛记录在案，但本周曝光的一连串歪曲事实的行为可能会再次困扰他。

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.

不断变换的表述也有力地说明了总统的一些律师为什么劝他不要接受特别检察官罗伯特·穆勒 (Robert Mueller)的面谈。穆勒正在调查2016年竞选期间，特朗普的竞选团队是否与俄罗斯进行过合作，以及总统是否为了阻挠该调查而妨碍司法。这些律师说，穆勒正在给特朗普设计一个伪证罪陷阱。他们没有公开说出来的是，他们担心总统无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.

多年来，特朗普对自己的生活和企业进行了有选择性的和创造性的描述——他在自己的第一本书中将其称之为“诚实的夸张”。有时候，这个习惯会给他带来麻烦。甚至在当选总统后，他还拿出2500万美元了结因为欺骗在营利性质的特朗普大学(Trump University)报了名的学生，而被控诈骗的官司。特朗普大学现已不复存在。

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.

当然，并不是每一次不实表述都同样有意义。3月，《纽约时报》报道特朗普正在讨论雇佣华盛顿资深律师艾米特·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.

特朗普反应激烈。“快不行了的《纽约时报》故意写了一篇假资讯，说我对我的法律团队在俄罗斯一事上的表现不满，打算再找一个律师帮忙，”他在Twitter上写道。“错了。我对我的律师约翰·多德(John Dowd)、泰·柯布(Ty Cobb)和杰伊·塞库罗(Jay Sekulow)非常满意。”11天后，多德辞职。本周，柯布宣布辞职。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，在联邦检察官严厉的目光下，不实陈述的危害要大得多。在调查该案的近一年时间里，穆勒已经表明他非常愿意控告特朗普的同事向调查人员撒谎。独立律师称，总统的律师允许他接受面谈是鲁莽之举。就连坚持认为特朗普本质上诚实的其支持者也承认，他在细节上可能不准确。

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.

对特朗普来说，这事关打造符合自己理想形象的叙事和支配那些描述自己生活的话语——这些在媒体报道、商业领域、政治领域，甚至是他医疗报告中的话语。但现在，他可能会失去对他故事情节的掌控——尽管他一直试图将其捏在自己手里，造成这个局面的部分原因，在于他对待同事的方式上，比如他的医生和曾向艳星付钱的律师。

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 2017 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.

本周，有关医生声明真实来路的曝光，可能不会令很多人感到惊讶。当哈罗德·N·伯恩斯坦(Harold N. Bornstein)在2017年12月公布的信件中称特朗普将是“有史以来最健康的当选总统”时，并没什么人相信它的真实性。其中还包含了这位候选人常常用来形容自己的“力量和耐力”用语。

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.

伯恩斯坦本周证实，这封信由特朗普口授。这次披露源自他与总统的关系破裂。据特朗普的助手说，在他去年告诉时报特朗普使用过治疗脱发的药物后，总统感到愤怒且尴尬。特朗普常常计算着激怒那些了解自己私密细节的人的风险，但并未公开表达自己的愤怒。但他派助手收走了因为太过愤怒而打破沉默的伯恩斯坦手上的医疗记录。

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.

同样，特朗普还得担心受他粗暴对待的长期律师迈克尔·D·科恩(Michael D. Cohen)是否会反过来伤害他。在纽约接受联邦检察官调查的科恩起初表示，他曾用房屋净值贷款向名为斯蒂芬妮·克利福德(Stephanie Clifford)的艳星支付了13万美元，且没有获得特朗普组织或团队的报销。

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.

上个月，在“空军一号”上被记者问到他是否知道向克利福德支付的款项时，特朗普说“不知道”。他还表示自己不知道这笔钱的来源。

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.

但在周三晚间福克斯资讯(Fox News)的采访中，前纽约市长、现任总统律师的鲁道夫·W·朱利安尼(Rudolph W. Giuliani)表示特朗普已给科恩报销了这笔钱。

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.”

在周四上午的后续采访中，朱利安尼称特朗普直到最近才真正了解具体情况。“他在几个星期前对此都是不了解的，也就是在我们知道具体情况之后，”朱利安尼说。“可能都没几个星期——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.

在周三晚间的采访中，朱利安尼还说了特朗普去年决定解雇联邦调查局(FBI)局长詹姆斯·B·科米(James B. Comey)的另一个原因。特朗普首次宣布撤职时，他的解释是科米“不能有效领导调查局”，并援引了科米在处理希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)邮件服务器事件时的批评备忘录。第二天，特朗普告诉NBC资讯的莱斯特·霍尔特(Lester Holt)，不论有没有备忘录，他都会解雇科米，还说通俄门调查压在他的心上。

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.

在福克斯资讯的采访中，朱利安尼认为撤职的决定是因为科米拒绝在通俄调查中公开证明特朗普无罪。“他解雇了科米的诸多原因之一，是科米不愿说他不是调查的目标，”朱利安尼说道。此后，穆勒的部门就告诉白宫，特朗普虽然不是调查目标，但他是调查对象。