House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Monday recommended using the congressional appropriations process to curtail prosecutions against former President Donald Trump.
The Ohio Republican pitched a series of policy riders for fiscal 2025 appropriations bills in a letter to the House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole.
One proposed policy rider goes after special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith’s office, which has brought criminal charges against Trump in Florida and the District of Columbia. The rider would prohibit funding for an “office of a Special Counsel, who has not been confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as a U.S. Attorney,” from being used “to bring a criminal prosecution of a former or current President or Vice President.”
Another rider would prohibit funds from being 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.”
Jordan’s letter did not mention Smith or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg by name. Last week, after the jury found Trump guilty, Jordan asked Bragg and another New York state prosecutor to testify at a weaponization subcommittee hearing set for next week about the case.
The policy riders are the latest example of congressional Republicans stepping to Trump’s defense after a New York state jury found the former president guilty of 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.
Overall, Jordan’s letter contained 11 pages of proposed policy riders across five fiscal 2025 spending bills, and touched on immigration and border security, police grants and multiple firearm-related regulations.
Jordan, in the letter sent Monday, said he made the policy recommendations on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
“We recommend that the Appropriations Committee, with appropriate consultation from leadership, include language to eliminate federal funding for state prosecutors or state attorneys general involved in lawfare and to zero out federal funding for federal prosecutors engaged in such abuse,” Jordan wrote.
Jordan also recommended the appropriations committee include language that would “eliminate any funding for the FBI that is not essential for the agency to execute its mission, including rescinding prior appropriations and prohibiting new taxpayer funding for any new FBI headquarters facility.”
One proposed policy rider would prohibit funds in the Financial Services and General Government funding bill from being used to build a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Md.
Earlier this year, Congress passed a fiscal 2024 funding package that included $200 million toward a project to build a new FBI headquarters. Another rider proposed Monday would rescind that $200 million.
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