Donald Trump has been charged with four crimes, which has enraged his supporters and encouraged his House Republican friends to try to use the looming Sept. 30 government funding deadline as leverage to thwart the charges.
The bad news for them is that a shutdown of the government wouldn’t stop the criminal investigation of the former president.
While Trump’s federal indictments — for unlawfully mishandling sensitive documents and for his participation in the Jan. 6 uprising — are criminal matters and have previously been exempt from shutdowns, his indictments in New York and Georgia would not be impacted. In a document from 2021, the Justice Department stated that during a government shutdown, “Criminal litigation will continue with no interruption as an activity crucial for the safety of human life & the protection of property.” The judicial branch’s continued full operation, which the Justice Department has previously stated can last for weeks in the event of a budget interruption, is assumed in the plans.
According to the department’s account of expenses, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office is supported by a “permanent, indefinite appropriation for independent counsels.” The special counsel wouldn’t be impacted by a shutdown because of its independent financing source and could continue operating with funds from prior years.
Republicans are therefore trying to find methods to include clauses in government spending legislation that will obstruct federal and state prosecutors who have indicted Trump on the basis of unfounded allegations that he is being politically targeted.
It won’t be simple to accomplish. The demands, led by hard-right Republicans, have created disagreements inside the party on how to limit the authority of law enforcement and are unlikely to pass the House. A Democratic aide pointed out that the House GOP has not yet passed two of the 12 appropriations bills, including the Justice bill, which may indicate disagreements about how to proceed. These pleas to stop law enforcement are being rebuffed by Democrats, who are in charge of the Senate and the White House, who see it as meddling in Trump’s legal matters.
As Congress reconvenes next week, tension lingers over talks to keep the government funded.
Three Trump prosecutors are the target of an appropriator
Smith, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg are all three of Trump’s prosecutors, and Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., a Trump supporter who serves on the Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that he will offer two amendments to remove federal funding for all three of them. According to his office, the restrictions would prevent them from prosecuting “any major presidential candidate prior to” the 2024 election.
In a statement, Clyde said, “I intend to submit two amendments to prohibit any federal monies from being utilized in federal or state courts to prosecute significant presidential candidates before the 2024 election because of my severe concerns about these witch hunt charges against President Trump.
The GOP’s desire to use Congress’ “power of the purse” to defend Trump, that who is running for president once more, gained momentum over the past two months and intensified following the most recent indictment in Atlanta in relation to the former president’s attempt to reverse his 2020 election defeat using fabricated claims of fraud.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, is attempting to stop funding Smith’s office, which on January 6 indicted Trump in a Florida case and a criminal probe into his handling of secret documents. Gaetz issued a statement demanding that “the House of Representatives defund Jack Smith’s office and put an end to the witch hunt.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., another Trump friend with Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ear, is in favor of that initiative.
Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from Ohio, is publicly urging party leaders to include clauses in legislation governing federal financing that alter the way the Justice Department can use funds. This includes prohibiting it from carrying out “a politically sensitive investigation” — which covers political candidates and family members — “until the Department of Justice creates a policy requires non-partisan career staff to oversee such investigations.”
Jim Jordan questions Bragg and Willis
Republicans are also considering how they can influence state prosecutors. Following Willis’ indictment of Trump last week, Jordan launched an investigation into her, questioning her motives and requesting all paperwork related to her office’s “receipt and use of federal funds.”
Jordan wrote in a letter to Willis that she had until September 7 to answer. “Given the weighty federal objectives at stake, the Committee is carrying out oversight of this matter to figure out whether any changes to the law are appropriate or necessary,” Jordan stated. Such reforms “could involve adjustments to the Federal Officer Removal Statute, Immunities for Federal Officials, the Acceptable Use of Federal Funds, the powers of Special Counsels, and a separation of prosecutorial authority between Federal and Local Officials.”
After indicting Trump on allegations of fabricating company documents in connection with hush money payments, Jordan also looked into Bragg.
Rep. Andy Biggs, a far-right Republican from Arizona, is taking a more direct route by introducing legislation “to strip taxpayer funding from the Fulton County DA Office,” in reference to federal funds that are given to county prosecutors. Biggs accuses Willis’ staff of conducting “politically motivated witch hunts.” Biggs didn’t provide evidence for his assertion, but Trump vigorously promoted it on his social media account.
Republicans have attempted to downplay all four of the charges against the earlier president, which include specific allegations of unlawful behavior that were presented to grand juries in several different jurisdictions, because of political pressure by pro-Trump supporters. As long as Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nominee to oppose President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, the possibility of criminal proceedings starting as early as March looms large.
Another tweet from Biggs on Sunday read, “Defund the FBI.”
Democratic pushback and GOP divisions
On whether to use the budget process as pressure to restrain law enforcement, Republicans are split. Jordan’s requests about law enforcement policy are “just requests,” according to Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, an appropriator, and they won’t “get prioritized just because you’re Jim Jordan.” Susan Collins, the Republican vice chair of the appropriations committee in the Senate, recently stated, “Reforms may be necessary, but I vehemently oppose defunding the FBI and the Department of Justice.”
Democrats are vehemently opposing GOP attempts to stifle law enforcement and are cautioning against meddling in Trump’s legal sagas.
Defending proposed cuts to the FBI and U.S. attorneys, House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., recently said: “It is shameful that the majority’s baseless attacks on federal law enforcement have taken the leap from irresponsible rhetoric into appropriations language.” “It appears that the majority is opposed to the Department of Justice conducting an independent investigation into claims of criminal activity made against specific persons. We cannot allow political meddling in law enforcement operations to become the norm because this is the blatant politicization of our criminal justice system.
The four indictments, according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, demonstrate “a repeated pattern of unlawful conduct by the former president.”
The two top Democrats recently pleaded with Trump, his backers, and detractors in a joint statement to “allow the legal process to continue without outside interference.”