2020 Election
Matt Gaetz threatens to defund special counsel Jack Smith over wife's Michelle Obama film
November 22, 2022 1:12PM ET
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) (Photo: Gage Skidmore)
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) called on his colleagues in Congress to "defund" special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into former President Donald Trump.
While speaking to podcaster Steve Bannon on Tuesday, Gaetz suggested that Smith should not have been appointed special counsel because his wife made a film about Michelle Obama and contributed to President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.
"You would think that if the stated purpose to avoid any type of concern about bias were sincere, then they would at least check to see whether or not when you shake the family tree of the special counsel, any virulent Trump haters, never-Trumpers, Biden supporters fall out," Gaetz ranted. "This is déjà-vu all over again because [former special counsel Robert Mueller] assembled a team that had very well demonstrated bias against President Trump."
"One has to wonder if we shouldn't address this legislatively so that in the future — whether it's Republicans or Democrats being investigated — you don't have the very people in the throes of the political conflict trying to migrate their political grievance into the criminal justice process," he added.
It was not immediately clear if Gaetz's proposed legislation would also impact Clarence Thomas because his wife, Ginni, is a well-known conservative activist who worked to overturn the 2020 election.
Gaetz said that the solution in the case of Smith was to defund the special counsel's office.
"It's not what we should be seeing in the United States of America," he remarked. "I don't want to sit around hand-wringing and bedwetting over this. I think we ought to use the power of the purse to defund this explicitly political exercise against President Trump."
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