House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Saturday he would direct House committees to investigate the possible prosecution of former President Donald Trump by the Manhattan district attorney.
Trump predicted on Truth Social on Saturday that he would be arrested next week in the investigation into his handling of a hush money payment during his 2016 presidential campaign, prompting a slew of Republican allies to express outrage.
McCarthy said the Manhattan district attorney’s move would be “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical prosecutor who is running violent criminals while pursuing political revenge against President Trump,” and said he is “directing relevant committees to immediately to investigate whether federal funds are being used”. used to undermine our democracy by distorting elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”
representative Chip Roy said one charge of the former president is said to be “politically motivated” — a symptom of what Roy called a “politicized ‘right’ system that will (be) being weaponized against ALL Americans.”
Senator JD Vance tweeted “We just don’t have a real country when justice depends on politics,” while claiming that impeaching Trump would not make him reconsider his support for the former president in 2024.
Prominent Trump affiliate Republicans like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and the former President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also responded in support of McCarthy’s tweet when Democrats immediately hit back.
“The man who created a commission to investigate ‘government arming’ is using his powers in government to stop an independent prosecution of his boss,” Rep. Eric Swalwell wrote in his own tweet.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg defended the ongoing investigation in several media appearances this week, saying his team of prosecutors is “focused on the evidence and the law.”
Earlier in the morning, Greene unleashed a tirade of accusations to Bragg and “Biden’s DOJ,” calling on congressional Republicans to respond with legal action.
“Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and put an end to this! We have the power to do it and we also have the power to DEFUND their salaries and departments!” Greene tweeted. “The American people deserve a government that actually works for them, NOT a bunch of self-centered communists bailing out their donors, protecting the elites and [sic] their power to punish their political enemies!”
Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, the only 2024 Republican presidential hopeful to comment so far, said an indictment against Trump “would be a national disaster,” and that it is “un-American for the ruling party to use police power to arrest its political rivals,” before calling on the Manhattan DA to “rethink this action and the partisan politics aside”. of the preservation of our constitutional republic.”
