Senate Republicans threaten to cut funds to FBI if it doesn't kill Trump indictment
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's indictment from the grand jury turned top Republicans in the Senate to look for ways to go on the attack.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) explained that he's prepared to defund the federal police branch.
"I think we certainly need to use financial pressure to force some reforms at the FBI," Vance told reporters on Wednesday at the Capitol. "We're always going to have a federal law enforcement. We're always going to have a Justice Department. But we should absolutely use our financial pressure and leverage to get these guys to change course because, man, they've got really out of control."
Republicans in the House have accused Democrats of "weaponizing" the government, namely the Justice Department, against political foes. Vance is proposing using the power of Congress to force the Justice Department to stop investigating Trump.
Vance said that he is willing to look in any place that Congress can use its funding power to force the FBI to submit to the demands, including refusing to fund a new FBI headquarters.
"I'm willing to sort of look any place, anywhere in order to use our constitutional authority to apply pressure to the FBI to wake up and do the job of law enforcement, not politics," said Vance.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) agreed, saying that it's clear "we've got to have a change." Now that Trump has been indicted, he wants to ensure that can't happen, but acknowledged it can't look "politicalized."
"The FBI and the Justice Department are targeting [President Joe] Biden's opponents," Scott told Raw Story.
The Justice Department began its investigation into Trump prior to him declaring he was running for president in 2024. Trump is the only Republican "opponent" that the Justice Department is investigating.
"I'm very disappointed Justice and FBI is doing this. It looks like what happens in Latin America. So, I think everyone's going to have to look at how we — how we fix it," Scott continued.
Going after the DOJ and the FBI doesn't mean he's not a member of the "party of law enforcement," he claimed. "I still support law enforcement. We have to make sure it's not politicized. It's not fair to the normal people doing law enforcement."
During his speech Tuesday night, Trump announced that under his administration, he would appoint a special counsel to look into Biden. A Trump-appointed Republican has already been appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to serve as a special counsel and look into Biden's classified documents. Biden self-reported finding documents and then worked to ensure they were handed over to the National Archives once discovered.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said of the Trump special counsel, that he understands "the way he's been treated, why he'd want to do that."
When asked how it's political to appoint a special counsel for Trump but not political to appoint one for Biden, Johnson confessed, "that's the problem, okay?" Still, he said that it should be allowed for Republicans to politicize a special counsel because Democrats did it.
"We just keep violating these norms and let's face it, it's the Democrats that are violating these norms of this country," he told Raw Story.