House Republican aims to defund ‘sham’ Trump prosecutions until after 2024 election

By Ben Whedon

In the wake of former President Donald Trump’s surrendering at the Fulton County Jail last week, one Republican lawmaker aims to defund the myriad prosecutions against him, contending that the American people ought to be able to decide his fate through electoral means prior to any legal proceedings.

“I certainly expect to have a lot of support. This is a fight that we have to win here,” Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde said on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show. “This is not just messaging. I mean, you look at what this judge that you mentioned, Chutkan just did here, you have a blatant example of election interference, scheduling a criminal trial for Super Tuesday, the week of Super Tuesday. I mean, you know, how more in your face can you get?”

Clyde’s remarks followed U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s setting Trump’s trial date for March 4, 2024, in a Monday decision. That decision will mean that special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump over his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results will proceed amid the Republican primary contest.

Trump faces three other prosecutions, one from Smith over his alleged mishandling of classified materials, one from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over a 2016 payment to Stormy Daniels, and one from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over his Georgia election challenge.

[Y]ou’ve got three prosecutors, two state level, one federal,” he continued. “And what they’re doing is these four sham indictments with 91 charges… if this isn’t election interference, you know, then I don’t know what this is. So, we have to defund this at the federal level. That’s what Congress does. We use the power of the purse to make sure that our nation abides by the Constitution. And that’s what we’re doing here.”

Clyde further noted that his measures would not preclude federal investigations, merely prosecutions.

“[T]hey can investigate all they but they cannot prosecute before the American people have their say in the matter what, as to who is going to become the next president of the United States,” he said. “And then on the state level, it would deny all federal funding to any office – state or local office – that does the same thing, that prosecutes a major presidential candidate, because the American people have to have their say. This is total election interference.”

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