While Jim Jordan claims to want to end “lawfare” in his budget proposal, his real aim is to shield just one person from prosecution: Donald Trump.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has some very strong feelings about how the government should be “reformed.” Many of them are related to protecting Donald Trump from adding more felonies to his rap sheet.
In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for writing the legislation that funds the government, Jordan on Monday laid out the priorities of his committee, as well as those of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government (Editor’s note: Irony alert! Extreme hypocrisy forthcoming!).
Most of his proposals are pretty standard GOP fare: Protecting the border, addressing “rising crime” in US cities (violent crime is down, by the way, according to the latest figures), protecting FBI whistleblowers, etc.
Where things get interesting (and funny) is when it comes to the one “reform” that the committee chose to highlight when it announced that Jordan had sent the letter.
https://x.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1797713087912632664
“[Jordan] submits legislative proposals to DEFUND lawfare by Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, and Letitia James,” the committee tweeted. There is even a little “police car revolving light” emoji to show that this is serious stuff.
Specifically, Jordan wants to stop “politicized prosecutions.”
“We have conducted oversight of the troubling rise in politicized prosecutions and the use of abusive ‘lawfare’ tactics to target political opponents,” he writes.
That does sound like it’s a real problem affecting many people.
But how widespread is it, really?
To find out, let’s take a look at the proposed legislative text Jordan included in his letter.
“None of the funds made available by this Act or any other Act shall be used, or transferred to another Federal agency, board, or commission to be 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,” the included text reads.
Well, that sounds oddly specific.
There aren’t that many former or current vice presidents alive, and only one seems to get himself in legal trouble, e.g., by staging a coup, hoarding classified documents, obstructing justice, and the like. So, this language is probably not about shielding Jimmy Carter or Mike Pence (who only needs protection from angry MAGA acolytes) from prosecution.
And, come to think of it, the four people mentioned in the tweet are either prosecutors or the special counsel who charged Trump with various crimes… including the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records that the former president was just found guilty of.
It’s almost as though Jordan wants to use the budget, i.e., the power of the federal government, to shut down prosecutions.
That seems like something that the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government and its Chairman James Comer (R-KY) would be interested in investigating. Just kidding, of course.
To be fair to Jordan, he proposed additional language in this section, so let’s take a look at whether that is a bit broader.
“None of the funds made available by this Act or any other Act shall be used, or transferred to another Federal agency, board, or commission to be used, to appoint or fund the office of a Special Counsel, who has not been confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as a U.S. Attorney, to bring a criminal prosecution of a former or current President or Vice President.”
Nope, still just about Trump.
Essentially, this language is about Jordan and House Republicans getting to decide who should be prosecuted and who should not.
It stands to reason that the irony is lost on them.
