Republicans are stepping up their efforts to attack the FBI and prosecutors like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) following former President Trump’s conviction in the case of silence.
GOP lawmakers are calling for reduced funding for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI, despite relatively few federal dollars going to the local offices run by Willis and Bragg.
They are also trying to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland accountable for contempt of Congress, although they appear to lack the votes to do so.
This is all part of a broader attack on a judicial system that the Republican Party holds responsible for the guilty verdict handed down by a New York jury against Trump and his other legal cases, which may not be decided until after the election.
“This is about ending the legal war,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters on Monday, shortly after a letter from Jordan to the Appropriations Committee chairman was published. made public. The letter outlined proposed protections for FBI funding in the Justice Department’s annual spending bill.
Jordan called for defunding a new FBI headquarters and recommended tying agency spending to policy changes designed to promote “transparency,” such as requiring the FBI to record interviews.
He also pushed for “defunding” what Republicans say are politicized prosecutions of prosecutors involved in “legal warfare.” Jordan said this included Willis, Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as well as the office of federal special counsel Jack Smith.
Although the FBI receives significant federal funding, prosecutors like Bragg and Willis, whose offices are run primarily through state and local funds, do not.
The Department of Justice offers several grants to local law enforcement agencies, often directed toward efforts to curb violence or bolster other community efforts.
Jordan’s comments came not long after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also took aim at the funding while discussing the GOP’s efforts to combat what they see as Democrats’ weaponization of the justice system.
In a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Johnson railed against “political retribution in the judicial system for going after political opponents of federal officials like Donald Trump,” promising that the party will use “oversight responsibility” with the “tools we have in Congress.” ”
“We have the funding streams, we have mechanisms to try to control this,” Johnson said.
On Tuesday, Johnson launched a three-pronged plan to take on the Justice Department, something that would include going after its funding.
He did not say whether that plan would include bringing to the floor a two-committee-approved resolution that would hold Garland in contempt of Congress.
When Garland appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, ranking member Jerrold Nadler (DN.Y.) criticized Republicans for using the meeting to “create an outlet to spew more ridiculous conspiracies.”
“That’s why they held a hearing on what they called ‘lawfare’ – the ridiculous claim that the department is somehow orchestrating state prosecutions against the former president for criminal activity that has been well documented.”
Garland himself clarified that the Justice Department simply has no control over any state prosecutor.
“I don’t control the Manhattan district attorney. The Manhattan District Attorney doesn’t report to us. The Manhattan District Attorney makes his own decisions about the cases he wants to bring under state law,” Garland said.
Nadler said efforts to defund offices like Willis’s amount to harassment.
“They are trying to intimidate her into not going after Trump, or at least proactively discredit any convictions resulting from the election interference lawsuit,” Nadler added.
Republicans in both chambers spoke out strongly against the New York jury’s verdict, which found Trump guilty on all 34 counts related to falsifying business records to hide his secret payments to an adult film star.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he believes the outrage “could have a very significant impact” when both chambers meet to negotiate the final version of the DOJ’s annual funding bill for fiscal year 2025, adding which supports the use of “every leverage point we have to try to control the abuse of power we are seeing from angry Democrats blinded by their partisan hatred.”
Congress has until the end of September to pass its 12 annual funding bills, although many expect lawmakers will have to agree to a short-term measure to avoid a shutdown.
There is a desire on both sides to postpone the next deadline beyond the November elections, although nothing is certain.
Conservatives, confident in Trump’s re-election chances, are pushing for a stopgap early next year, which they argue could give the next presidency more influence over annual funding bills – and potentially a better chance of securing changes. supported by the Republican Party in the DOJ funding bill.
“We should do the funding in 2025,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) said Tuesday. “Let the new president contribute and I think it will be Trump.”
Scott is part of a group of conservatives who pledged to oppose non-security funding increases for the DOJ and other agencies in a letter that blamed the White House for making a “mockery of the rule of law.” They also promised not to “allow the rapid consideration and passage of Democratic legislation or officials that are not directly relevant to the security of the American people.”
However, despite outrage over the verdict, some Republicans expressed caution about directing funding to the FBI and prosecutors.
“I have not seen the specific proposals, but I hope that any proposals put forward are serious and are made with good long-term policy in mind and not just a knee-jerk, short-term reaction to a hasty prosecution, trial and conviction of President Trump,” said Rep. Nick LaLota (RN.Y.) on Tuesday.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also suggested some downsides to the attack.
“I haven’t looked at any specific proposals, but I think at the end of the day we need to be very careful before we [an] election that we can almost certainly sweep Washington and just be smart about focusing on policies to bring about that end,” Tillis told The Hill on Tuesday.
“People can convince me that this happens, I’m in,” he said. “If that doesn’t happen, I’m out.”
While Republicans have increased their criticism of the justice system, efforts aimed at the FBI emerged as a sore point for the party in the last fiscal year’s appropriations process — underscoring the potential obstacles GOP leadership faces as it tries to keep the party unified. in the passage. their party funding proposals over the summer with a narrow majority.
“We are discussing it in conference,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), head of the House Appropriations Committee, told The Hill on Tuesday when pressed about the frustration surrounding the recent ruling and its impact.
“Obviously, this ruling has had a huge impact on public opinion, for and against, and so again we are being inundated with recommendations,” Cole said. “We need to sit down and listen to our members and our leadership.”
Cole added that lawmakers “always want to be cautious when they spend money,” but noted that Congress has “the power of the purse and people are not automatically entitled to federal dollars to use however they want.”
“Congress has a say in this.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
