WASHINGTON β Former President Donald Trumpβs indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents is set to play out in a federal court in Florida. But about a thousand miles away, part of Trumpβs defense is well underway in a different venue β the halls of Congress, where Republicans have been preparing for months to wage an aggressive counteroffensive against the Justice Department.
The federal indictment against Trump, unsealed Friday, includes 37 counts, including allegations that the former president intentionally possessed classified documents, showed them off to visitors, willfully defied Justice Department demands to return them and made false statements to federal authorities about them. The evidence details Trump's own words and actions as recounted by lawyers, close aides and other witnesses.
The Republican campaign to discredit federal prosecutors skims over the substance of those charges, which were brought by a grand jury in Florida. GOP lawmakers are instead working, as they have for several years, to foster a broader argument that law enforcement β and President Joe Biden β are conspiring against the former president and possible Republican nominee for president in 2024.
βToday is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,β tweeted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, soon after Trump said on his social media platform Thursday night that an indictment was coming. McCarthy blamed Biden, who declined to comment on the case and said he is not involved in the Justice Departmentβs decisions.
McCarthy called it a βgrave injusticeβ and said that House Republicans βwill hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.β
Republican lawmakers in the House have already laid extensive groundwork for the effort to defend Trump since taking the majority in January. A near constant string of hearings featuring former FBI agents, Twitter executives and federal officials have sought to paint the narrative of a corrupt government using its powers against Trump and the right. A GOP-led House subcommittee on the βweaponizationβ of government is probing the Justice Department and other government agencies, while at the same time Republicans are investigating Bidenβs son Hunter Biden.
βItβs a sad day for America,β said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman who is a leading Trump defender and ally, in a statement Thursday. βGod bless President Trump.β
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs was more strident. βWe have now reached a war phase,β he tweeted. βEye for an eye.β
Democrats say the Republicans are trafficking in conspiracy theories, with potentially dangerous consequences. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, issued a joint statement Friday urging calm around the Trump case, saying everyone should βlet this case proceed peacefully in court.β
Republicans' recent rhetoric βnot only undermines the Department of Justice but betrays the essential principle of justice that no one is above the commands of law, not even a former President or a self-proclaimed billionaire,β said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
Key elements of the GOP strategy are to discredit the prosecutors and investigate the investigators β a playbook that Republicans employed during Trumpβs presidency as his own Justice Department probed his connections to Russia, and also used in April when Trump was charged in a hush money investigation in New York.
In the days leading to the New York indictment, House Republicans laid out a full-on campaign against Alvin Bragg, the Democratic district attorney in Manhattan who brought the case against the former president.
Charging that the prosecution was βpure politics,β Jordan held a field hearing near Braggβs New York offices to examine what they said were his βpro-crime, anti-victimβ policies. Jordan is also the top Republican on the weaponization subcommittee.
As special counsel Jack Smith was preparing this week to release the indictment, Trump's allies on Capitol Hill were working overtime to prepare the defense of the former president. Jordan issued a series of letters to the Justice Department, demanding documents related to his investigation into Trumpβs handling of classified records. Jordan cited the recent report by special counsel John Durham that found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trumpβs 2016 campaign and routinely ignored or rationalized evidence that undercut its premise.
In the June 1 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Jordan requested information about the ongoing investigation in order to βensure any ongoing investigations are not poisoned by this same politicization.β
Just as the indictment was unsealed on Friday, Jordan sent another letter to Garland, this time laying out testimony from a former FBI official who testified to the committee about the raid at Trumpβs Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Jordan wrote that Steven DβAntuono, a former assistant director at the FBIβs Washington Field Office, told the committee the Justice Department βwas not following the same principlesβ as previous raids.
Defending Trump also has the potential to ease tensions among House Republicans as they face their own troubles on Capitol Hill, after a conservative-led revolt over the recent debt ceiling deal divided the party this week and halted most legislation from passing on the floor.
But even if Republicans are able to shape public perception of the probes, there is one thing they cannot do β control the outcome of Trump's trial. The former president is at great legal risk, no matter what the public believes, under two indictments β and potentially more as prosecutors in Georgia and Washington investigate his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
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