A proposal from Republicans in the House that would block Special Counsel Jack Smith’s salary as he continues investigating and prosecuting former President Donald Trump has only garnered three supporters, including sponsor Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and two cosponsors. The cosponsors are GOP Reps. Eli Crane (Ariz.) and Alex Mooney (W.Va.).
Separately, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has also previously expressed support for blocking funding around the multiple investigations from Smith. The insistence from these Republican political figures on opposing Smith and those seen as allied with him at the federal Justice Department notably contrasts with the Republican idea that their party is the main bastion of support for law enforcement. Though Republicans have expended a lot of energy complaining about the left-wing notion of defunding the police, some from their side continue their own attacks on funding for law enforcement. Greene herself has sold merch that features a printed call to defund the FBI!
Republicans including Trump have insisted that the various investigations and now charges that he is facing constitute a political affront — or “weaponization,” which is what a subcommittee in the House led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has been aiming to confront. Recently, Alberto Gonzales, who served as Attorney General when George W. Bush was in office as president, condemned some of the Republican claims that have spread about supposed bias at the federal Justice Department. He argued their stances effectively amounted to fighting the rule of law. There remains no apparent evidence that Trump’s cases have been procedurally handled in a manner substantially different from the many other charges and cases that regularly emerge from grand juries.
“To suggest that special counsel Jack Smith’s latest indictment on the Jan. 6 assault is just an attack on free speech, as some Republican partisans are claiming, is itself an attack on the rule of law,” Gonzales said. “If a private citizen had organized the events on Jan. 6, there is little doubt that they would have been arrested and prosecuted. The Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol should not be held to a higher standard than the former president.”
