In a portion of his remarks from a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday that he later highlighted online, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) blasted what’s essentially the interference that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Republicans have been attempting to run for former President Donald Trump. That’s amid his four criminal cases across the same number of jurisdictions, which together feature dozens and dozens of individual charges.
Schiff described the country as currently facing down a trial on whether the equal application of the rule of law would stand. There is no conclusive evidence that Trump, in being charged, has been subjected to a procedural standard different from many other Americans who have faced criminal charges and cases. Yet, Republicans continue raising their complaints, and in targeting what’s the basic application of the law to Donald Trump, they’re pursuing what would be a special standard for Donald, elevating him above everyday Americans.
“The Chairman would abuse the power of this committee by trying to interfere in the prosecutions of Donald Trump, by trying to use the committee’s power of subpoena to compel criminal discovery — in effect making the committee a kind of criminal defense firm for the former president,” Schiff said Wednesday (Jordan is the Judiciary chairman). “In doing so, the chairman of this committee would establish a very different proposition. Through Mr. Jordan’s actions, he would establish the principle that the rule of law should apply to almost everyone, just not the leader of his party.”
Schiff’s reference to Jordan’s attempt to access what would essentially be criminal discovery materials reflects Jordan’s push for insider information from Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought one of the Trump cases. Discovery is the period before trial in which both sides produce relevant materials to assist in the comprehensive preparation of arguments based on roughly the same evidentiary foundation. Schiff characterized the approach inherently promoted by Jordan’s subservience to Trump’s destructive ambitions as “dictatorship.” Schiff called the Ohio Republican’s insistence that Trump has been victimized but Hunter Biden has received favorable treatment “devoid of any factual basis.”
The country is now engaged in a great trial, of the proposition that we are a nation of laws, and the rule of law applies to everyone.
Jim Jordan believes that it should not apply to the leader of his party.
That is a different proposition. And it is called, dictatorship. pic.twitter.com/0Tj1O454eP
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) September 20, 2023
