EXCLUSIVE: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital he is proposing an appropriations package that would “defund the lawfare activities” of state and federal prosecutors leading “politically sensitive investigations,” pointing specifically to Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The proposal comes just days after former President Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records, stemming from charges brought against him by Bragg.
Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, leaves the Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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Trump is also currently awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether he is immune from charges brought against him by Smith in his Jan. 6 investigation; awaiting a trial date on charges brought from Smith’s classified records case; and awaiting a trial date on charges brought by Willis in Georgia.
Jordan sent his proposal Monday to House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla. Fox News Digital obtained the letter and his proposal.
“The Committee on the Judiciary and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government continue to conduct vigorous oversight over the Biden Administration in an effort to protect Americans’ fundamental freedoms,” Jordan wrote.
Last year, Jordan helped to implement reforms through the appropriations process, including “proposals to prohibit the funding of politically sensitive investigations, protect whistleblowers against retaliation, prevent taxpayer funds from being used to implement radical regulations, prohibit the funding of disastrous Biden immigration policies, and stop the funding of government censorship – among other proposals – which were included in Subcommittee or Full Committee-passed bills.”
Jordan said he hopes to build on that work for fiscal year 2025.
Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)
Jordan said he has spent the year conducting oversight of “the troubling rise in politicized prosecutions and the use of abusive ‘lawfare’ tactics to target political opponents.”
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“We have seen rogue prosecutors abuse the rules of professional conduct and their duty to do justice in service of politicized ends,” he said.
Jordan recommended the 2025 fiscal year appropriations package 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.”
District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks during a news conference on March 7, 2024, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Jordan noted that the House Judiciary has already passed specific bills that would help to address politicized prosecutions – the “No More Political Prosecutions Act” and the “Forfeiture Funds Expenditure Transparency Act.”
“Never forget these key facts,” Jordan said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “Alvin Bragg campaigned on how he’s going to ‘get Trump.’ Once he gets in and sees how ridiculous this case is, he says he cannot envision a world where he would indict President Trump and call Michael Cohen as a prosecution witness, but he does just that after – this is key – after President Trump announces he’s running for president.”
Jordan then pointed to Willis, who was investigating 2020 election interference in Fulton County, Georgia.
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“Fani Willis starts her investigation in February of 2021 – she doesn’t do anything with it, doesn’t indict, until after President Trump announces he is running for president,” Jordan said.
“And maybe the biggest one is Jack Smith who, three days after President Trump announces he’s running for president, Merrick Garland appoints him as special counsel,” Jordan added.
Jordan told Fox News Digital that “all of these things are completely driven by politics.”
Jordan said the purpose of his proposal is to “defund the lawfare activities.”
Donald Trump and Jack Smith (Getty Images)
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges stemming from Bragg’s, Smith’s and Willis’ investigations.
Separately, Jordan proposed to Chairman Cole that Congress focus on “reining in abusive federal law enforcement agencies.”
Jordan said his committee has received testimony this year “about egregious abuses, misallocation of federal law-enforcement resources, and misconduct within the leadership ranks” of the FBI.
“We recommend that the Appropriations Committee include language to eliminate any funding for the FBI that is not essential for the agency to execute its mission, including rescinding prior appropriations and prohibiting new taxpayer funding for any new FBI headquarters facility,” he wrote. “We also recommend tying funding for the FBI to specific policy changes – such as requiring the FBI to record interviews – that will promote accountability and transparency at the FBI.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)
On immigration, Jordan recommended prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars from funding the Biden administration’s “open-border immigration policies.”
Jordan also proposed efforts to protect freedom of speech online by prohibiting taxpayer funds from being used “to censor Americans online or to classify speech as so-called ‘mis-, dis-, or mal-information.’”
Jordan also asked that the committee eliminate taxpayer dollars going toward the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CIA) Foreign Influence Operations and Disinformation office, the Global Engagement Center, and other governmental and non-governmental entities he said are “engaged in speech suppression.”
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Jordan also proposed language to ensure federal grant dollars are not being awarded to jurisdictions across the nation that choose to defund their police – in an effort to address rising crime in urban American cities.
“On behalf of the Committee and the Select Subcommittee, enclosed please find an initial list of suggested priorities to be included in the fiscal year 2025 appropriations bills. Like last year, these proposals stem from our robust oversight and legislative efforts, which will continue throughout the remainder of the 118th Congress,” Jordan wrote. “By working together, we can ensure that the appropriations process will continue to be a powerful check against the weaponization of the federal government.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Smith, Bragg and Willis.
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