A day after entering a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts of fabricating business records in New York, former president Donald Trump went on the offensive on Wednesday, urging his fellow Republicans in Congress to cut funding for the US Justice Department and the FBI.
Even when the Manhattan district attorney was seeking the historic criminal charges against him – the first brought against any former or sitting president – Trump, who is running for re-election in 2024, took aim at federal law enforcement authorities.
Trump posted a message on his social media site.”REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SHOULD DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES,” The Department of Justice is referred as DOJ.
Republicans have always opposed attempts by some on the left to “defund” local police departments and have defended strong funding for law enforcement in the past. When he was president from 2017 to 2021, Donald Trump supported raising funding for the FBI and Justice Department. The FBI is the domestic intelligence and security agency for the United States.
Two Justice Department criminal investigations into Trump are being supervised by a special counsel that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed. The first focuses on efforts by Trump and his allies to alter the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democratic President Joe Biden, while the second is concerned with classified documents that Trump kept after leaving office.
After James Comey, the former head of the FBI, was dismissed by Trump in 2017, Christopher Wray was appointed as the new director. It seems improbable that Congress will comply with Trump’s request. Democrats rule the Senate, while Republicans control the House of Representatives.
On Wednesday, the FBI declined to respond to Trump ‘s remarks.
Reduced financing for federal law enforcement would also have no impact on a separate criminal investigation of Trump being conducted by a Georgia county prosecutor and focusing on whether he illegally attempted to reverse his state’s 2020 election loss.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office charged Trump on Tuesday with 34 felonies for allegedly orchestrating payments to two women before the 2016 election in an effort to prevent the public disclosure of their sex acts with him. The payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels, according to the prosecutors, constituted an effort to hide a violation of election law.
According to opinion polls, Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination as he seeks to deny Biden from winning a second term.
Trump has repeatedly complained that law enforcement officials at the state and national levels are using him as a political weapon, and his fellow Republicans in Congress have held hearings to look into this so-called “weaponization” of government.
Bragg, a Democrat, has been charged with bringing the allegations for political purposes, according to Trump and his allies. In remarks made after the filing of the charges on Tuesday, Bragg stated that it is his duty to make sure that everyone is treated equally in front of the law.
On Tuesday, before taking a flight back to his house in Florida to make a public statement, Trump showed up at an arraignment in New York. Without providing any supporting information, he claimed that he was a victim of election interference.
At his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump addressed his fans, “I never thought anything like this could happen in America. “The only crime that I’ve committed has been to fearlessly defend our nation against those who seek to destroy it.”
In Trump’s words, “before he knew anything about me,” Bragg was out to get him. He referred to Juan Merchan, the judge handling the case, as “a Trump-hating judge.”
The next Trump case hearing has been scheduled for December 4 by Merchan. According to legal experts, a trial might not even begin for a year. Legally, being charged or even being found guilty does not bar someone from running for president.