As House Republicans with close ties to Donald Trump widen investigations into alleged bias at the Department of Justice and the FBI – while also mulling impeachments of top Biden administration officials – justice department veterans and ex-GOP members are voicing concern that these efforts weaken the justice system and democracy.
Led by the judiciary committee chairman, Jim Jordan, far-right House Freedom Caucus members have helped spearhead inquiries into the alleged “weaponization of the federal government” with significant backing from the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and other GOP leaders.
House conservatives were irked by special counsel Jack Smith’s 37-count indictment of Trump for hoarding classified and sensitive documents after leaving office and obstructing justice, as well as the justice department’s plea deal with Joe Biden’s son Hunter involving two minor tax crimes and a gun violation.
This Republican ire at the justice department was underscored when McCarthy in a Fox News interview in late June floated the notion of impeaching the attorney general, Merrick Garland. The suggestion came after an IRS whistleblower made an unverified claim at a House hearing that justice department leaders interfered in the Hunter Biden case.
“Someone has lied here,” McCarthy told Fox. “If we find that Garland has lied to Congress, we will start an impeachment inquiry.” Garland has strongly denied any interference in the inquiry.
In May, Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced an impeachment resolution against the FBI director, Chris Wray, charging that “Director Wray has turned the FBI into Joe Biden and Merrick Garland’s personal police force”, using “Soviet style tactics”.
Some conservatives are also discussing possible budget cuts for the FBI and justice department, or freezing some officials’ salaries to penalize perceived biases against Trump and for Biden, even though such moves would seem to undercut traditional GOP “law and order” rhetoric and policies.
Representative Steve Womack, an ally of Republican House leaders, told Politico in July that some members “believe the best way to send a message is to use the power of the purse”, and plan to take their messages to the House floor, where other party members may balk at such cuts.
Trump, and the 40-odd-member Freedom Caucus that Jordan co-founded, gained considerable leverage with McCarthy as he battled for days to become speaker. McCarthy’s success in nailing down the speakership was deeply indebted to Trump’s help, which a veteran GOP consultant said seems to have drawn them closer.
“House colleagues say McCarthy and Trump talk as much as every couple days,” the consultant said. “If Trump doesn’t call him, McCarthy will call Trump.”
Similarly, McCarthy’s backing for Jordan’s judiciary panel inquiries into the weaponization of the government, which began early this year with a special subcommittee, are linked partly to his tough fight to become speaker. To win his post, McCarthy had to cut deals with the Freedom Caucus and Jordan, who backed McCarthy early on and had a role in convincing caucus holdouts to vote for him.
The spate of conservative attacks on the justice department and the FBI have spurred former members and ex-justice department officials to warn that conservatives are bolstering Trump’s conspiratorial charges of “deep state” biased prosecutors to appeal to Trump’s base – while hurting law enforcement and the justice department.
“House Republicans reflect the base of the party, and the base is fully radicalized and fully with Trump,” said former GOP representative Joe Walsh of Illinois. For House Republicans, “It’s a two-year revenge tour for how the ‘deep state’ and Democrats have targeted Trump since he first got elected and for the ‘stolen election’ in 2020.”
Walsh added that Trump’s indictments and separate 34-count charge by a Manhattan district attorney for falsifying business records to conceal payments to a porn star “are further deep state targeting” and that it was “open warfare”.
“For House Republicans, there is zero distinction between politics and outright warfare. Because the base believes the government has been at war with them for years,” he said.
Walsh stressed: “To defend Trump means you have to attack our democratic institutions like our elections, our justice system and the rule of law.”
Other House GOP alumni raised red flags about the spate of justice department and FBI investigations and impeachment talk by conservatives.
“Jordan is not only accepting Trump’s falsehoods but actively promoting them. It’s an alternative reality. Members are doing it for re-election purposes, fundraising and power,” said the former Michigan Republican representative Dave Trott.
Trott added that he thought “what the Trump crazies have promoted is undermining our democracy and confidence in our judicial system and justice department. Now they want to defund justice and the FBI because they know it will further energize the far-right base.”
Likewise, former justice department officials say that House members echoing Trump’s rhetoric are badly misguided.
“Comments by Republican politicians about weaponization of the justice department are completely disconnected from reality,” said the former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer, who served in the George HW Bush administration. “Overwhelming evidence indicates that Trump has committed multiple serious crimes against the country and is very likely to be held accountable. A political strategy based on opposing that reality is the height of foolishness.”
Such criticisms don’t seem to fly with House conservatives, although there has been some pushback from moderate GOP members and divisions about how far to go with various impeachment efforts.
House conservatives have been eager to impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, over border security issues, a move McCarthy has endorsed but which has caused friction with GOP moderates.
Further, some conservatives have suggested impeaching President Biden, but McCarthy has cautioned against such a move given the absence of high crimes and misdemeanors, and GOP moderates are divided on the wisdom of trying to oust Biden.
Politico reported this month that some conservatives are mulling again whether to push for a vote that would recommend ousting Wray. Last August, Wray became a top target after the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, which found caches of classified documents and helped spur Trump’s 37-count indictment.
Just how far and how fast the attacks on the justice department and FBI extend will play out this summer and fall at judiciary panel hearings that could prove contentious. Wray is slated to appear at a judiciary hearing on Wednesday and Garland is due to testify in September.
Conservative anger at both the justice department and FBI could expand as Trump faces other scrutiny and potential charges from the special counsel and a Georgia district attorney involving his aggressive efforts to overturn his loss to Biden, respectively, in key swing states and on 6 January 2021, and in Georgia.
Looking ahead, House GOP alumni warn that the Republican investigations may appeal to Trump and his base, but alienate moderate voters.
“I’m sure Trump is thrilled by it all,” the former Republican Pennsylvania representative Charlie Dent said. “I bet he’s talking to his allies regularly. Trump is looking at this from his sense of personal grievance.”
Dent added: “It’s a total base play and the middle be damned. If you want to be a governing party and appeal to a broader segment of the American public, you wouldn’t do a lot of these things.”
Walsh predicted that the attacks on the justice department could intensify and fuel extremism.
“Trump is going to ratchet up his victimization language and his ‘they’re really coming after you’ bullshit because these indictments are going to force him to. It’s his only argument and he knows it will inflame his base. Trump welcomed violence on January 6, he’ll welcome violence during the 2023-24 election cycle,” he said.
Some former prosecutors say conservative moves to cut justice department funding don’t square with the GOP’s traditional agenda.
“Given that the sentencing commission statistics for federal defendants in 2022 show that 31.5% were drug offenders, 27.5% immigration and 14.5% firearms, Republicans ought to explain why they think cutting justice department funding would advance their political goals,” said the former federal prosecutor and Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman.
Likewise, other former prosecutors see the conservative attacks as dangerous ploys.
“The Republicans’ continued claims of misconduct by law enforcement officials are not only demoralizing to the good men and women who have given their careers to the pursuit of justice, but are particularly destructive to the institutions that support our democracy and the rule of law,” said former Georgia US attorney Michael Moore. “The problem with these unfounded claims of impropriety is that there is no accountability for making them.”
