Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who assisted in his then-capacity as a lawyer and private citizen with the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump, remarked this week that he’d found the “weaponization” of the federal government that has been the subject of investigations in this Congress led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Goldman was speaking amid new reports that Trump called Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) after the ex-president’s recent criminal conviction on all counts in a felony case in New York City. “@playbookdc reporting today is after the NY verdict, Trump called Mike Johnson to say “We have to overturn this,” and he agreed,” said a social media post from journalist Edward-Isaac Dovere. “The next day on Fox Johnson said, “I think that the Justices on the court—I know many of them personally—I think they are deeply concerned abt that.””
It would appear, then, that Johnson was trying to at least invoke the powers of the U.S. Supreme Court in fostering opposition to the outcome of Trump’s criminal case, in which the ex-president is now heading towards a sentencing early next month. It’s unclear at this point whether Trump will face time in detention, with precedent and relevant law appearing to indicate it’s at least a possibility.
“There you have it. The weaponization of the federal government that Jim Jordan’s been searching for. It was right under his nose the whole time,” said Goldman, discussing Johnson’s behavior.
Jordan, in this Congress, chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which now also harbors a subcommittee dealing with the so-called “weaponization” of the federal government’s powers, implying the usage of such powers for allegedly political purposes. House Republicans have already investigatively targeted a slew of authorities who’ve gone after Trump in court, from Special Counsel Jack Smith to Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis and beyond.