Former President Donald Trump following his indictment has been pushing for Republicans in Congress to cut the funding for the FBI and the Department of Justice. However, some members of the GOP are worried that this message could potentially hurt their stance of being tough on crime, which is one of the primary messages that they have been using during the elections.
Trump’s comments about the need to defund law enforcement agencies came only after he faced his own criminal charges in New York. However, they also contribute to the general position held by the GOP about these agencies being weaponized.
On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social to say that Congress needed to “DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES.” This was in response to the Justice Department’s probes which are examining the possibility that Trump had mishandled the classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate, as well as the one looking into his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
One day before this post, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has also been pushing for Congress to consider the possibility of cutting funds for federal agencies after alleging that they have been attempting to interfere with elections. In an interview with Fox News, he argued that they have the “power of the purse” and that for that reason they would consider limiting the funds available to some of these agencies.
