U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Saturday said he would direct House committees to investigate the Manhattan district attorney’s potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
Trump on Saturday predicted on Truth Social that he would be arrested next week in the probe over his handling of a hush-money payment during his 2016 presidential campaign, prompting a slew of Republican allies to express their outrage.
McCarthy said the Manhattan DA’s move would be “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump,” and said that he is “directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”
Rep. Chip Roy said an indictment of the former president would be “politically-motivated” — a symptom of what Roy called a “politicized ‘justice’ system that will be (is being) weaponized against ALL Americans.”
Sen. J.D. Vance tweeted “We simply don’t have a real country if justice depends on politics,” maintaining that a Trump indictment would not cause him to reconsider his endorsement of the former president in 2024.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has publicly broken ties with Trump over the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, spoke out in support of his former boss.
“This is what the Manhattan DA says is their top priority,” Pence told conservative media outlet Breitbart. “It reeks of the kind of political prosecution that that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax and the whole impeachment over a phone call.”
Prominent Trump-allied Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also responded in support of McCarthy’s tweet as Democrats immediately hit back.
“The guy who created a committee to look into ‘weaponization of government’ is using his powers in government to stop an independent prosecution of his boss,” Rep. Eric Swalwell wrote in his own tweet.
Rep. Jeff Jackson told MSNBC, “I used to be a prosecutor and I met a lot of people who had dodged consequences all through their life. Someone like Trump who has been able to avoid consequences for misdeeds for his entire life may actually find out at long last that there is an end of the road.”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump made a “reckless” announcement “to keep himself in the news & to foment unrest among his supporters.”
“Whatever the Grand Jury decides, its consideration makes clear: no one is above the law, not even a former President of the United States,” Pelosi added.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg defended the ongoing investigation in various media appearances this week, saying his team of prosecutors are “focused on the evidence and the law.”
Earlier in the morning, Greene unleashed a tirade of accusations against Bragg and “Biden’s DOJ,” calling on congressional Republicans to respond with legal action.
“Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END 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 who bail out their donors, protect the elites, and weld [sic] their power to punish their political enemies!”
Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, the only declared Republican presidential hopeful in 2024 to comment so far, said a Trump indictment “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 “reconsider this action and to put aside partisan politics in service of preserving our Constitutional republic.”
The post US House speaker calls for probes as Republicans slam potential Trump indictment appeared first on Politico.
