New Republican Proposal Takes Aim at Jack Smith
Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023, in Washington, D.C. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan proposed a list of budget reforms for fiscal year 2025 on Monday which takes aim at funding for Smith's investigations into former President Donald Trump.
Republican lawmakers are putting additional pressure on Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice amid the criminal prosecutions of former President Donald Trump.
In a letter signed by House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan on Monday, the GOP lawmaker and close ally of Trump proposed several reforms to the 2025 fiscal year budget that would restrict funding for "politically sensitive investigations," among other issues. Jordan specifically requested that federal funding be prohibited from going toward "a criminal prosecution against a former or current President or Vice President" by the Justice Department. The chairman is also seeking to prohibit taxpayer money from being put toward a new FBI headquarters.
Jordan's proposals, which were sent to Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, also focus on the state-level prosecutions and civil suits that Trump has faced while running for reelection. Under Jordan's reforms, federal funds would be prohibited from being used by an agency "to be used, to consult, advise, or direct state prosecutors and state attorneys general in the civil action or criminal prosecution of a former or current President or Vice President brought against them in state court."
The new fiscal year will begin on September 29 and end on September 27, 2025. President Joe Biden submitted his proposals for FY 2025 back in March. In order for Jordan's list of requests to be passed, they would have to pass both the House and the Democratic-controlled Senate before being presented to Biden to sign.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, the House Judiciary GOP's account said that Jordan's letter contained "legislative proposals to DEFUND lawfare by Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, and Letitia James."
Smith's office declined to comment to Newsweek on Jordan's budget proposals on Monday. An email was also sent to the Democratic caucus on the House Judiciary Committee same day.
Jordan's list of budget proposals comes a few days after Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his hush-money case in Manhattan. The congressman called Trump's conviction "a travesty of justice" in a post to X last week and accused prosecutors of trying "to keep President Trump off the campaign trail and avoid bringing attention to President Biden's failing radical policies."
"Americans see through Democrats' lawfare tactics and know President Trump will be vindicated on appeal," Jordan added.
The hush money case, led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is one of four criminal cases up against Trump as he seeks a second term in office in November. Smith's office has announced two sets of indictments against the former president over his handling of classified materials after leaving office and his actions related to the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump, who pleaded not guilty in all 34 counts included in his hush money indictment, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the list of legal battles against him and accuses prosecutors of launching a "witch hunt" to upset his reelection chances.
The former president has previously demanded that Congressional Republicans defund the Justice Department and the FBI. A handful of his allies, such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, have pressed other GOP lawmakers to withhold funds from federal prosecutors over Trump's indictments.
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