Former President Donald Trump yesterday called on fellow Republicans in Congress to cut funding for the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), launching an offensive a day after pleading not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business reports.
Trump, who is seeking a return to the presidency in 2024, has lashed out at federal law enforcement agencies even as the Manhattan district attorney's office brought criminal charges against him.
"Republicans in Congress should defund the Department of Justice and the FBI until they wise up," Trump posted on his social network.
Republicans have strongly supported funding for law enforcement in the past and have criticized proposals by some on the left in recent years to "defund" local police departments. Trump, while president from 2017 to 2021, supported spending increases for the Justice Department and the FBI.
Trump is also facing two Justice Department investigations led by a special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. One focuses on efforts by Trump and his allies to alter the results of the 2020 election in which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and the other focuses on classified documents Trump kept after leaving office.
It was Trump who appointed the current director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, after he fired the previous head of the agency, James Comey, in 2017. Reuters points out that it is unlikely that Congress will grant Trump's request and reminds that the Republicans control the House of Representatives and the Democrats the Senate.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office charged Trump on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over allegations he arranged payments to two women before the 2016 election to prevent their affairs with him from going public. Prosecutors said the payments to adult film actress Stormi Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougall were an attempt to cover up violations of election law.
While falsifying business reports is a misdemeanor in itself in New York, punishable by up to one year in prison, it is elevated to a felony, punishable by up to four years in prison, when it is done to cover up another crime - such as violating election law.
However, the indictment does not go into details about the crimes that are allegedly hidden, which, as Reuters points out, surprised some legal experts. "I expected them to have a clear, precise and convincing theory that there was an intention to conceal the crime, in the sense that this is a crime and he committed it in this way. That's not in the indictment," Mark Bederow, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, told Reuters.
Public opinion polls show that Trump is the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election.
"I never thought something like this could happen in America," Trump told supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. "My only crime is that I dedicated myself to the fearless defense of our country against those who are trying to destroy it."
Trump accused Bragg of stalking him, even "before he knew anything about me." He said that the judge in his case is Juan Mercan, a "Trump hater".
Mercan scheduled the next hearing for December 4. Legal experts say the trial may not even begin for a year. An indictment or even a verdict does not legally prevent a person from running for president.
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