Another day, another story about House Republicans trying to sabotage the indictments against coup-plotting former President Donald Trump. NBC News’ Sahil Kapur reports that Republicans who want to use the next government funding deadline to stymie the indictments are out of luck. The Justice Department noted that special counsel Jack Smith's office is funded by a "permanent, indefinite" appropriation and that criminal trials are deemed exempt from a shutdown.
But that doesn't mean Trump's Republican allies aren't trying their hardest to strip funding from the offices prosecuting Trump. It doesn't matter if Trump hides military attack plans in a club bathroom or attempts to overthrow the United States government. Nothing will stop these seditionists from trying to protect Trump. It's comically corrupt.
The article continues:
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., a Trump ally who sits on the Appropriations Committee, said Monday he will introduce two amendments to eliminate federal funding for all three of Trump’s prosecutors — Smith, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. His office said the measures would block their prosecutorial authority over “any major presidential candidate prior to” the 2024 election.
“Due to my serious concerns about these witch hunt indictments against President Trump, I intend to offer two amendments to prohibit any federal funds from being used in federal or state courts to prosecute major presidential candidates prior to the 2024 election,” Clyde said in a statement.
In other words, anyone who attempts to prosecute Trump for actual damn felonies will get their federal funds zeroed out. Clyde can’t have prosecutors trying to enforce laws against Republican candidates on his watch.
What is still not clear is why all of this does not amount to a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice. Every Republican attempting to sabotage Trump's prosecution are political allies who also boosted the most serious of Trump's crimes—attempting to overthrow the United States government. They helped him in his short-thumbed coup attempt, they helped cover up their own involvement—in Rep. Jim Jordan's case, by refusing to testify to House investigators—and they have continually looked to sabotage the prosecutions by demanding that prosecutors hand over their case files so that House Republicans can engage in the now-rote selective document leaks and defamations of witnesses.
It's transparently a conspiracy to obstruct justice. The only reason Jordan and the others aren't themselves indicted is likely because of state and federal prosecutorial worries that House speech and debate protections can be used as an effective “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
That doesn't mean the press can't report it as such, though. Nobody is confused as to whether Clyde is lying about the "witch hunt" in order to obstruct the prosecution of criminal acts. Nobody is stumped by why the Republicans who most supported Trump's coup-boosting schemes and hoaxes are the ones now looking to strangle parts of the government if that's what it takes to protect Trump from being brought to justice.
Why is this obvious conspiracy being covered as if it is political gamesmanship as opposed to brazen, Watergate-plus level corruption? What are we doing here? Do Jordan or Clyde have to break into Smith's offices personally before the press starts ringing the alarm?
Journalists aren't doing us any favors by pretending that repeated Republican efforts to sabotage the rule of law are politics as normal. These people are stone-cold crooked, the kind of crooked that's willing to try toppling the U.S. government if the alternative is having to stomach a temporary loss of power. Of course, they're trying to obstruct justice. That's what authoritarian movements do.
No comments:
Post a Comment