The possibility of what’s known as a government shutdown has reemerged with looming deadlines in D.C. for approving new rounds of funding for a variety of federal operations, though critical functions handled by authorities would still continue.
And guess what that list includes? Criminal prosecutions, including the two federal criminal cases against former President Donald Trump originating with Special Counsel Jack Smith. A GOP-originating threat of a shutdown via far-right commitments to certain policy moves before proceeding with major funding would seemingly not curtail the proceedings. These evident details were spotlighted in new reporting from NBC.
Besides the cases from Smith, Trump is charged in two additional criminal cases that are not at the federal level and so would be much less directly affected by even the possibility of tumult in this funding process. “The Justice Department’s plans assume that the judicial branch remains fully operational, which it has said in the past can carry on for weeks in the event of a funding lapse,” NBC said, discussing how various agencies might react to sudden gaps in major funding.
There’s also information from a semi-recent spending report covering Smith. “SCO expenditures are funded by 1) the permanent, indefinite appropriation for independent counsels (IC Appropriation) (28 U.S.C. § 591 note), which the Department of Justice (DOJ) has determined is legally available to fund this SCO investigation (see also Government Accountability Office opinion agreeing with DOJ that this appropriation was legally available to fund special counsels (B-302582, Sept. 30, 2004)),” authorities said. That’s where the expenses incurred directly by Smith’s team are funded.
The prospect of the Justice Department continuing to move forward undercuts the rhetoric from Republicans like Arizona’s Andy Biggs and Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene about wanting to strip funding from federal law enforcement — something around which this same crowd became so furious when it was suggested from the other side.
The scenario also contrasts with the general push from prominent Republicans sticking with Trump to use the powers within their reach to essentially shield him. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), for instance, has already dispatched a letter to Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the local prosecutor behind Trump’s case there. Jordan pushed for Willis to provide materials including potential communications with various individuals in the federal government related to the people she charged, though it’s unclear any significant connections between the Willis team and federal prosecutors were ever made in this matter.
Trump and allies of his, meanwhile, keep claiming election interference because of the proximity to Trump’s 2024 campaign. All the investigations that have so far resulted in charges for the former president were publicly known before he confirmed that campaign, and there’s seemingly no evidence of involvement by Trump’s direct political opponents, meaning Biden and the president’s team, in any of these cases.
