House GOP Plans Amendments to Defund Special Counsel Jack Smith

Former President Trump's allies in the House of Representatives are planning to introduce amendments to the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill that would target the prosecutions against Trump, including by defunding Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Former President Donald Trump's Republican allies in the House of Representatives are gearing up to challenge the special counsel investigation into Trump by proposing amendments to the upcoming Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill that would restrict the funding of the investigation.

At least three House Republicans, Andrew Clyde, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Andy Ogles, have announced their intentions to introduce amendments that would target the prosecutions against Trump in some way. This move comes less than two weeks after House Republicans released the CJS appropriations bill, which cut the Justice Department's funding by nearly $1 billion.

House GOP Plans Amendments to Defund Special Counsel Jack Smith

Clyde, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he would introduce an amendment "to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding the prosecution of a presidential candidate before the 2024 election."

Greene, one of Trump's most vocal allies in the House, intends to file an amendment similar to a measure she previously introduced targeting the funding of special counsels. Greene expressed disappointment that the base text of the appropriations bill did not include provisions to defund Special Counsel Jack Smith.

House GOP Plans Amendments to Defund Special Counsel Jack Smith

Ogles's office has also confirmed that he plans to introduce an amendment stripping Smith's funding.

The move to defund Smith's investigation is part of a broader effort by Trump's allies to discredit the various probes into the former president's actions, including the ongoing grand jury investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the Manhattan District Attorney's probe led by Alvin Bragg.

House GOP Plans Amendments to Defund Special Counsel Jack Smith

Earlier this month, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, recommending that the spending bill "include language to eliminate federal funding for state prosecutors or state attorneys general involved in lawfare and to zero out federal funding for federal prosecutors engaged in such abuse."

Speaker Mike Johnson has also signaled his support for measures to hold special counsels accountable and has suggested that Congress may have the power to defund their offices.

House GOP Plans Amendments to Defund Special Counsel Jack Smith

The CJS appropriations bill is currently being weighed by a panel on the House Appropriations Committee and is expected to see a chamber-wide vote sometime next month. However, even if the amendments targeting Trump's prosecutions make it into the bill, it's unlikely to be considered by the Democrat-controlled Senate, which is working on its own version of the fiscal year 2025 appropriations bills.