特朗普被起诉
据外媒报道，美国曼哈顿大陪审团近日通过表决就“封口费”一案起诉美国前总统唐纳德·特朗普（Donald J. Trump）。据了解，起诉书可能在未来几天公布。
🤔️小作业：
1. indict, convict是什么意思？
2. uncharted waters是什么意思？
3. sitting presidents是什么意思？
4. inviolable, liable是什么意思？
无注释原文：
A President Faces Prosecution, and a Democracy Is Tested
From: The New York Times
For the first time in American history, a former president of the United States has been indicted on criminal charges. It is worth pausing to repeat that: An American president has been indicted for a crime for the first time in history.
So many unthinkable firsts have occurred since Donald J. Trump was elected to the White House in 2016, so many inviolable lines have been crossed, so many unimaginable events have shocked the world that it is easy to lose sight of just how astonishing this particular moment really is.
For all of the focus on the tawdry details of the case or its novel legal theory or its political impact, the larger story is of a country heading down a road it has never traveled before, one fraught with profound consequences for the health of the world’s oldest democracy. For more than two centuries, presidents have been held on a pedestal, even the ones swathed in scandal, declared immune from prosecution while in office and, effectively, even afterward.
No longer. That taboo has been broken. A new precedent has been set. Will it tear the country apart, as some feared about putting a former president on trial after Watergate? Or will it become a moment of reckoning, a sign that even someone who was once the most powerful person on the planet is not above the law?
“Whether the indictment is warranted or not, it crosses a huge line in American politics and American legal history,” said Jack L. Goldsmith, a Harvard Law professor and former top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush.
If that were not enough to shake the timbers of the republic, the first may not be the last. Mr. Trump could face a second indictment in Georgia and a third from federal prosecutors and potentially even a fourth.
There is consternation that the barrier-shattering indictment would involve something as unseemly as paying hush money to cover up a sexual romp. Given that the defendant has been involved in far more earth-shattering events like trying to overturn an election and inspiring an attack on the Capitol to prevent the transfer of power, the allegations by Manhattan prosecutors seem less than epochal.
But if the issue is accountability, then the case could redraw the lines and make it less daunting for prosecutors in Georgia and Washington to follow suit by charging more serious crimes if they have the evidence, since they will not have to bear the burden of justifying action never taken before. Leave it to the only president ever impeached in Congress twice to face so many prosecutions that lawyers need a scorecard just to keep track.
While the indictment of Mr. Trump takes the country into uncharted waters, the authors of the Constitution might have been surprised only that it took so long. Justice Department policy maintains that sitting presidents cannot be indicted, but the framers explicitly contemplated the prospect of them being charged after leaving office.
A president impeached by the House and convicted and removed from office by the Senate “shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law,” Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution declares.
“Generally, we consider that language to suggest that, whatever may happen with respect to an impeachment while a president is in office, he still may be held liable civilly or criminally after he leaves office for his misconduct in office,” said Michael J. Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina.
In other words, no former president was immune from criminal liability. “The framers would have been horrified at the possibility of a president ever being above the law while in office or after leaving it,” Mr. Gerhardt said.
Indeed, while voting to acquit Mr. Trump at his second impeachment trial — the one charging him with inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader from Kentucky, said he did so because Mr. Trump was no longer in office but added that he was still subject to criminal prosecution.
Meena Bose, who is the executive dean of Hofstra University’s Peter S. Kalikow School of Government and runs a presidential history project, said that a country plagued by polarization and concerns about democracy would be stronger by enforcing responsibility on its leaders. “An active and continuing commitment to making sure all public officials follow the rule of law is essential to addressing those challenges,” she said.
But others worry about the long-term consequences for the presidency, not least because this indictment is being brought by a local prosecutor rather than the Justice Department, opening the door to prosecutors around the country taking it upon themselves to go after a president.
- ◆ -
注：中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考
含注释全文：
特朗普被起诉，成为史上首位面临刑事指控的美国前总统
A President Faces Prosecution, and a Democracy Is Tested
From: The New York Times
For the first time in American history, a former president of the United States has been indicted on criminal charges. It is worth pausing to repeat that: An American president has been indicted for a crime for the first time in history.
这是美国历史上首次有美国前总统遭受刑事指控。有必要再强调一遍：有史以来第一次，一位美国总统遭到犯罪起诉。
indict
indict /ɪnˈdaɪt/ 表示“控告，告发；起诉”，英文解释为“If a law court or a grand jury indicts someone, it accuses them officially of a crime.”举个🌰：
Five people were indicted for making and selling counterfeit currency. 5人因制售假钞被起诉。
So many unthinkable firsts have occurred since Donald J. Trump was elected to the White House in 2016, so many inviolable lines have been crossed, so many unimaginable events have shocked the world that it is easy to lose sight of just how astonishing this particular moment really is.
自特朗普2016年入主白宫以来，发生了太多不可想象的第一次，有太多不可侵犯的界限被逾越，太多难以理喻的事件震惊世界，以至于很容易就会忽视这一特殊时刻到底是多么不可思议。
inviolable
inviolable /ɪnˈvaɪə.lə.bəl/ 表示“不容侵犯的；无法破坏的；不容置疑的，神圣的”，英文解释为“that must be respected and not removed or ignored”举个🌰：
Everyone has an inviolable right to protection by a fair legal system. 人人都享有受公平法律制度保护的神圣权利。
lose sight of sth
表示“忘记，忽略”，英文解释为“to forget about an important idea or fact because you are thinking too much about other things”举个🌰：
I'm worried that we're losing sight of our original objectives. 我担心我们会淡忘我们的初衷。
astonishing
astonishing /əˈstɒn.ɪ.ʃɪŋ/ 表示“令人惊讶的；惊人的”，英文解释为“very surprising”举个🌰：
Her first novel enjoyed an astonishing success. 她的第一部小说取得了惊人的成功。
For all of the focus on the tawdry details of the case or its novel legal theory or its political impact, the larger story is of a country heading down a road it has never traveled before, one fraught with profound consequences for the health of the world's oldest democracy. For more than two centuries, presidents have been held on a pedestal, even the ones swathed in scandal, declared immune from prosecution while in office and, effectively, even afterward.
此案的种种粗鄙的细节及其涉及的新奇法律理论和政治影响承载了所有关注的目光，但它更广泛的意义还在于，一个国家就这样踏上了从未涉足之路，这将对世界最古老的民主政体的兴衰产生深远影响。两百多年来，总统之位神圣不可侵犯，即便深陷丑闻，总统也能在任职期间——甚至卸任以后——免于起诉。
tawdry
tawdry /ˈtɔː.dri/ 表示“俗艳而不值钱的”，英文解释为“looking bright and attractive but in fact cheap and of low quality”
fraught
1）表示“充满（问题或风险）的”，英文解释为“If a situation or action is fraught with problems or risks, it is filled with them.”举个🌰：
The earliest operations employing this technique were fraught with dangers. 最早采用这一技术的手术充满了危险。
2）表示“令人担忧的”，英文解释为“If you say that a situation or action is fraught, you mean that it is worrisome or difficult. ”举个🌰：
It has been a somewhat fraught day. 这是令人颇为担忧的一天。
🎬电影《兰戈》（Rango）中的台词提到：The path to knowledge is fraught with consequence. 通往真知的道路充满了荆棘坎坷
pedestal
pedestal /ˈped.ə.stəl/ 1）表示“基座，底座”，英文解释为“a long, thin column that supports a statue, or a tall structure like a column on which something rests”举个🌰：
In the riot, the statues were toppled from their pedestals. 在暴乱中，雕像从底座上被推了下来。
2）表示“崇高地位”，英文解释为“If you put someone on a pedestal, you admire them very much and think that they cannot be criticized. If someone is knocked off a pedestal they are no longer admired.”
swathe
swathe /sweɪð/ 也写作swath /swɑːθ/，作动词，表示“包；裹；覆盖”，英文解释为“to wrap or cover sb/sth in sth”举个🌰：
He was lying on the hospital bed, swathed in bandages. 他裹着绷带，躺在医院的病床上。
🎬电影《简爱》（Jane Eyre）中的台词提到：He doesn't like to arrive and find everything all swathed up, 他不喜欢回来时发现所有东西都被包裹起来。
作名词，1）表示“长条区域，大块区域；（尤指）长条田地，大块田地”，英文解释为“a long strip or large area especially of land”举个🌰：
Huge swathes of rainforest are being cleared for farming and mining. 为了耕种和采矿，大片大片的雨林被砍伐。
2）表示“部分；范围”，英文解释为“a large part of something that includes several different things”举个🌰：
These people represent a broad/wide swathe of public opinion. 这些人代表了广大人民的意见。
immune
1）表示“有免疫力”，英文解释为“cannot catch or be affected by a particular disease or illness”举个🌰：
Adults are often immune to German measles. 成人往往对风疹有免疫力。
2）表示“不受影响”，英文解释为“not affected by sth”举个🌰：
You'll eventually become immune to criticism. 你终究会不用在乎批评了。
3）表示“受保护；免除；豁免”，英文解释为“protected from sth and therefore able to avoid it”举个🌰：
No one should be immune from prosecution. 任何人都不应免于被起诉。
prosecution
1) 表示“起诉”，英文解释为“Prosecution is the action of charging someone with a crime and putting them on trial.”如：a criminal prosecution 刑事诉讼。
2) 也可以表示“（刑事案件的）检控方，控方”，英文解释为“the prosecution the lawyers who try to prove in a court of law that someone is guilty of a crime”。
3）表示“实施；从事；进行”，英文解释为“the act of making sth happen or continue”。
No longer. That taboo has been broken. A new precedent has been set. Will it tear the country apart, as some feared about putting a former president on trial after Watergate? Or will it become a moment of reckoning, a sign that even someone who was once the most powerful person on the planet is not above the law?
历史先例不再适用。这一禁忌已被打破。新的先例已经确立。前总统受审是否会使得这个国家分裂，就像水门事件后一些人所担忧的那样？亦或者，这会成为一个清算时刻，表明即使是这个星球上曾经最有权势的人也不能凌驾于法律之上？
taboo
taboo /təˈbuː/ 作名词，表示“禁忌，忌讳”，英文解释为“A taboo against a subject or activity is a social custom to avoid doing that activity or talking about that subject, because people find them embarrassing or offensive”举个🌰：
The topic of addiction remains something of a taboo in our family.
毒瘾在我们家依然是个有些忌讳的话题。
作形容词，表示“忌讳的，为社会习俗所不容的，不被人接受的；（因会冒犯人或引起尴尬而）禁忌的，忌讳的；（因太神圣或太邪恶而）禁止接触的，禁止使用的”。
precedent
表示“先例，前例”，英文解释为“an action, situation, or decision that has already happened and can be used as a reason why a similar action or decision should be performed or made”举个🌰：
There are several precedents for promoting people who don't have formal qualifications. 提拔没有正式学历的人是有几个先例的。
tear sth apart
tear sth apart 表示“使…分裂”，英文解释为“to make a group of people that was united, such as a country, family, or political party, argue, or fight with each other by dividing it into two or more parts”举个🌰：
Ethnic rivalries threaten to tear this country apart. 种族对立使这个国家面临分裂的危险。
reckoning
1）表示“估计；估算；计算”，英文解释为“the act of calculating sth, especially in a way that is not very exact”举个🌰：
By my reckoning you still owe me ￥100. 我算计着，你还欠我100元。
2）表示“最后审判日；算总账”，英文解释为“a time when sb's actions will be judged to be right or wrong and they may be punished”举个🌰：In the final reckoning truth is rewarded. 在最后算总账的时候，诚实的人会有好报。
“Whether the indictment is warranted or not, it crosses a huge line in American politics and American legal history,” said Jack L. Goldsmith, a Harvard Law professor and former top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush.
“无论起诉理由是否适当，这都是美国政治及美国法制史上一次意义重大的突破，”哈佛大学法学教授、曾在乔治·布什总统任内担任司法部高级官员的杰克·戈德史密斯说道。
warrant
1）作名词，表示“令状，搜查令；拘捕令”，英文解释为“A warrant is a legal document that allows someone to do something, especially one that is signed by a judge or magistrate and gives the police permission to arrest someone or search their house.”
2）作动词时，表示“使...有必要，使…显得适当”，英文解释为“If something warrants a particular action, it makes the action seem necessary or appropriate for the circumstances.”举个🌰：
Obviously what she did was wrong, but I don't think it warranted such a severe punishment. 显然她做得不对，但我认为她不应该受到如此严厉的惩罚。
3）还有一个用法是表示“担保，保证；许诺”（used to say that you are certain about something），举个🌰：
I'll warrant (you). 我（向你）保证。
🎬电影《美丽心灵》（A Beautiful Mind）中的台词提到：Your record doesn't warrant any placement at all. 你的履历压根不足以保证你能胜任任何职位。
If that were not enough to shake the timbers of the republic, the first may not be the last. Mr. Trump could face a second indictment in Georgia and a third from federal prosecutors and potentially even a fourth.
暂不论这是否足以动摇共和国的根基，破天荒的起诉或许不会到此为止。特朗普可能会在佐治亚州面临第二次起诉，以及来自联邦检察官的第三次，甚至第四次起诉。
prosecutor
There is consternation that the barrier-shattering indictment would involve something as unseemly as paying hush money to cover up a sexual romp. Given that the defendant has been involved in far more earth-shattering events like trying to overturn an election and inspiring an attack on the Capitol to prevent the transfer of power, the allegations by Manhattan prosecutors seem less than epochal.
让人始料未及的是，这场打破藩篱的起诉涉及支付封口费掩盖桃色丑闻这种不体面的事体。考虑到被告人曾经参与的那些更为惊天动地的事件——从试图推翻选举到煽动对国会山发起袭击以阻止权力移交，曼哈顿检方提起的指控似乎没有那么强烈的划时代意义。
consternation
consternation /ˌkɒnstəˈneɪʃən/ 表示“惊愕；惊恐；惊惶失措”，英文解释为“a feeling of worry, shock, or confusion”举个🌰：
The prospect of so much work filled him with consternation. 一想到要做这么多事，他心里惊恐不已。
hush money
hush money /ˈhʌʃ ˌmʌn.i/ 表示“封口钱”，英文解释为“money that is given to someone to make them keep something secret”
romp
romp /rɒmp/ 表示“打闹逗笑的表演；风流韵事；调情”，英文解释为“a funny, energetic, and often sexual entertainment or situation”
defendant
defendant /dɪˈfen.dənt/ 表示“被告，被告人”，英文解释为“a person in a law case who is accused of having done something illegal”
earth-shattering
earth-shattering /ˈɜːθˌʃæt.ər.ɪŋ/ 表示“震撼世界的；石破天惊的；极其重大的”，英文解释为“extremely important or very surprising”如：an earth-shattering discovery 震惊世界的发现。
epochal
epochal /ˈiː.pɒk.əl/ 表示“新纪元的，划时代的，有重大意义的”，英文解释为“used to refer to times or events that are very important because they involve new developments and great change”举个🌰：
An epochal shift in the global oil market is under way. 全球石油市场正在发生划时代的变化。
But if the issue is accountability, then the case could redraw the lines and make it less daunting for prosecutors in Georgia and Washington to follow suit by charging more serious crimes if they have the evidence, since they will not have to bear the burden of justifying action never taken before. Leave it to the only president ever impeached in Congress twice to face so many prosecutions that lawyers need a scorecard just to keep track.
但重点若在于问责，那此案可能会重新划定界限，减轻佐治亚州和华盛顿检察官跟进的压力，在掌握证据的情况下提出更严重的指控，因为他们无需再承受为前所未有之举辩护的负担。就让这些多到需要律师用记分卡统计的起诉全留给这唯一一位在国会被弹劾两次的总统吧。
accountability
accountability表示“问责制；有义务，有责任；可说明性”，英文解释为“the state of being accountable, liable, or answerable”。
daunting
daunting /ˈdɔːntɪŋ/ 表示“使人气馁的，吓人的；使人畏缩的；令人发怵的”，英文解释为“Something that is daunting makes you feel slightly afraid or worried about dealing with it.”举个🌰：
He and his wife Jane were faced with the daunting task of restoring the gardens to their former splendour. 他和他的妻子简当时面临着恢复花园昔日风采的艰巨任务。
📺英剧《唐顿庄园》（Downton Abbey）中的台词提到：and those standards can at first seem daunting. 这些规矩起初令人望而生畏。
📺美剧《绝命毒师》（Breaking Bad）中的台词提到：Just the idea of owning a car wash seems daunting, 收购洗车房的主意听起来不切实际。
impeach
impeach /ɪmˈpiːtʃ/ 表示“（尤指在美国）控告，弹劾（公职人员）”，英文解释为“to make a formal statement saying that a public official is guilty of a serious offence in connection with their job, especially in the US”
While the indictment of Mr. Trump takes the country into uncharted waters, the authors of the Constitution might have been surprised only that it took so long. Justice Department policy maintains that sitting presidents cannot be indicted, but the framers explicitly contemplated the prospect of them being charged after leaving office.
虽然起诉特朗普让这个国家面临未知，但宪法起草者们大概只会对起诉如此姗姗来迟感到惊讶。司法部政策坚称现任总统不能被起诉，但制宪者倒是明确考虑到了总统离任后被起诉的可能性。
uncharted waters
murky/uncharted waters 表示“陌生的领域；可能会有危险的情况”，英文解释为“a situation that is not well known and may be dangerous”
sitting
作形容词，表示“（总统或议员）现任的，在任期内的；现有的，现存的，持续的”，英文解释为“A sitting president or member of parliament is a present one, not a future or past one.”如：the greatest clash in our history between a sitting president and an ex-president 在我们的历史上发生的现任总统与前任总统之间最为严重的一次冲突。
作名词，表示“（宾馆的）用餐时间”，英文解释为“a period when a meal is served in a place like a hotel”举个🌰：
When the hotel is full, dinner is served in two sittings. 宾馆客满时，用餐分两批进行。
📍at/in one sitting 表示“一口气地”，英文解释为“during one limited period of time, without stopping”举个🌰：
I enjoyed the book so much that I read it all in one sitting. 我太喜欢这本书了，一口气就把它读完了。
explicitly
表示“明确地；明白地”，英文解释为“in a way that is clear and exact”举个🌰：
I told you quite explicitly to be home by midnight. 我明明告诉过你午夜前回家。
反义词：
📍implicitly表示“含蓄地；暗中地”（in a way that is suggested but not communicated directly:）
contemplate
1）表示“考虑；思量；思忖”，英文解释为“to think about whether you should do sth, or how you should do sth”举个🌰：
I have never contemplated living abroad. 我从未考虑过去国外居住。
2）表示“考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）”，英文解释为“to think carefully about and accept the possibility of sth happening”举个🌰：
The thought of war is too awful to contemplate. 战争太可怕了，真不敢去想。
3）表示“深思熟虑；沉思；苦思冥想”，英文解释为“to think deeply about sth for a long time”举个🌰：
She lay in bed, contemplating. 她躺在床上冥思苦想。
4）表示“端详；凝视”，英文解释为“to look at sb/sth in a careful way for a long time”举个🌰：
She contemplated him in silence. 她默默地注视着他。
A president impeached by the House and convicted and removed from office by the Senate “shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law,” Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution declares.
宪法第一条第三款规定，总统若被众议院弹劾定罪，且被参议院免职，“仍应负有刑责而得依法被起诉、审理、判决和惩罚”。
convict
convict表示“证明…有罪；定罪；宣判…有罪”，英文解释为“If someone is convicted of a crime, they are found guilty of that crime in a court of law.”举个🌰：
There was insufficient evidence to convict him. 没有足够的证据证明他有罪。
liable
表示“承担责任的；负有（法律）责任的”，英文解释为“having (legal) responsibility for something or someone”举个🌰：
The law holds parents liable if a child does not attend school. 法律规定孩子不上学父母要负责任。
“Generally, we consider that language to suggest that, whatever may happen with respect to an impeachment while a president is in office, he still may be held liable civilly or criminally after he leaves office for his misconduct in office,” said Michael J. Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina.
“总的来说，我们对这一措辞的解读是，无论总统在任期间遭受了何种弹劾，他离任后仍可能因其任内的不当行为承担民事或刑事责任，”北卡罗来纳大学宪法教授迈克尔·格哈特表示。
In other words, no former president was immune from criminal liability. “The framers would have been horrified at the possibility of a president ever being above the law while in office or after leaving it,” Mr. Gerhardt said.
换而言之，任何前总统都不能免于刑事责任。“若是知道有哪个总统可能在任内或卸任后凌驾于法律之上，制宪者定会感到震惊，”格哈特说。
Indeed, while voting to acquit Mr. Trump at his second impeachment trial — the one charging him with inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader from Kentucky, said he did so because Mr. Trump was no longer in office but added that he was still subject to criminal prosecution.
事实上，在指控特朗普煽动2021年1月6日国会山袭击事件的第二次弹劾审判中，来自肯塔基州的共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔参议员声称，自己投他无罪是因为特朗普已经离任，但他也表示，特朗普仍可面临刑事起诉。
acquit
表示“宣判无罪”，英文解释为“to decide and state officially in court that sb is not guilty of a crime”举个🌰：
The jury acquitted him of murder. 陪审团裁决他谋杀罪不成立。
对比区分：
📍convict表示“证明…有罪”，英文解释为“If someone is convicted of a crime, they are found guilty of that crime in a court of law.”举个🌰：
There was insufficient evidence to convict him. 没有足够的证据证明他有罪。
incite
表示“鼓动，煽动”，英文解释为“to encourage someone to do or feel something unpleasant or violent”举个🌰：
She was expelled for inciting her classmates to rebel against their teachers. 她因煽动同学反对老师而被开除。
Meena Bose, who is the executive dean of Hofstra University's Peter S. Kalikow School of Government and runs a presidential history project, said that a country plagued by polarization and concerns about democracy would be stronger by enforcing responsibility on its leaders. “An active and continuing commitment to making sure all public officials follow the rule of law is essential to addressing those challenges,” she said.
霍夫斯特拉大学彼得·卡利科政府学院执行院长、负责一个总统历史项目研究的米娜·博斯表示，要求领导人必须承担责任会让这个饱受极化困扰、对民主制度忧心忡忡的国家更加强大。“积极并持续致力于确保所有公职人员遵守法治，是应对这些挑战的关键，”她说。
plague
1）作名词可表示“瘟疫，疫病”，如：a fresh outbreak of plague 瘟疫的新一轮爆发；
2）作动词表示“不断困扰，折磨，使苦恼”，英文解释为“to cause pain, suffering, or trouble to someone, especially for a long period of time”，举个🌰 ：
She was plagued by weakness, fatigue, and dizziness. 她受虚弱、疲劳和眩晕所折磨。
🎬电影《白宫管家》（The Butler）中的台词提到：It's time we take a stand against these injustices that have plagued our community. 现在是时候该表明立场和采取行动来对抗这些已困扰我们很久了的不公。
polarization
表示“两极分化”，动词形式 polarize /ˈpəʊ.lə.raɪz/ 表示“使两极分化，使截然对立”，英文解释为“to cause something, especially something that contains different people or opinions, to divide into two completely opposing groups”举个🌰：
The debate is becoming polarized and there seems to be no middle ground. 辩论变得两极化了，看起来没有中间立场。
But others worry about the long-term consequences for the presidency, not least because this indictment is being brought by a local prosecutor rather than the Justice Department, opening the door to prosecutors around the country taking it upon themselves to go after a president.
但也有人担心这对总统职位的长期影响，尤其是因为，这次起诉是由一名地方检察官而不是司法部提出的，这为全国各地的检察官自行追究总统责任打开了大门。
bring
熟词僻义，表示“提起（诉讼）；起诉”，英文解释为“to make or begin as part of an official legal process”举个🌰：
He was arrested for fighting, but the police have decided not to bring charges. 他因斗殴被捕，但警方决定不予起诉。
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