GOP will defund DOJ in retaliation for Trump conviction: Speaker Mike Johnson
The embattled Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) is vowing to use the arsenal of tools at his disposal, including defunding, to target the U.S. Dept. of Justice after ex-president Donald Trump was convicted in a New York State prosecution on 34 felony charges last week.
In a Tuesday meeting behind closed doors with his House Republican conference members, Johnson said “he will do everything he can to go after the Department of Justice,” CNN reported, “and said the verdict has ignited support for the former president, two sources familiar with the comments told CNN.”
The speaker “presented a three-pronged approach of oversight, funding and legislation,” and “specifically walked through the funding cuts that House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan has proposed to the Appropriations Committee, the sources added.”
Just as U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) did Tuesday morning in a House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland, Johnson conflated the State of New York’s prosecution with the federal cases against Donald Trump. Federal and state prosecutions are separate.
In remarks to the press, Johnson echoed those he made earlier Tuesday, while adding claims about the state of the 2024 presidential race between President Joe Biden and ex-president and now convicted felon Donald Trump.
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Johnson, under fire for what some experts see as a possible admission he has been talking to Supreme Court justices about the Trump prosecutions, “briefed former President Trump on the plan before announcing it Tuesday morning,” Fox News reported, citing an unnamed lawmaker.
He also called the prosecutions of the ex-president “a new low” and “dangerous.”
The speaker claimed, “People realize that we have reached a new low and when you have activist prosecutors and the Democratic Party who are so desperate because of the presidential campaign and the way it’s going, they understand that Donald Trump, all the polling shows is crushing Joe Biden.”
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“They’re in, they’re in panic mode on the Democratic side,” Johnson continued, “and they are so desperate to stop Donald Trump. He’s winning in the swing states. He’s winning among the people. He’s winning among new demographics that have never voted Republican before. They see this happening. And they’re so desperate to stop him that they are willing to use the judicial system to do so.”
Donald Trump was indicted by grand juries on a total of 91 felonies in cases at the state and federal level. Three of the charges were later dropped.
Two months ago Johnson had also threatened to defund the DOJ and other agencies.
“We also advanced cuts … to some of the agencies that we believe are really overreaching, and have been turned in some ways against the American people. We are going to cut 3% from DOJ, 7% from the ATF, 6% from the FBI, and 10% from the EPA,” he told reporters.