Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) have renewed their calls to strip special counsel Jack Smith’s office of its funding. On Tuesday, Smith announced charges against former President Donald Trump over his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
On Tuesday Trump was indicted on four counts relating to this investigation. Earlier in July, Trump had received a “target letter” from Smith informing him that he was the target of the probe. Gaetz, who is one of Trump’s biggest supporters, introduced a new bill after Trump’s announcement which would block all federal funding for the special counsel’s office. On Tuesday, he renewed his calls to have the office defunded following the indictment.
On Tuesday, Greene also called for Smith’s office to be defunded in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Right before the indictment was released, Greene argued that they should utilize the Holman rule to have Smith’s office defunded. She further argued that even if Trump went to jail she would still vote in his favor.
She proceeded to claim that this was a communist attack on the rights granted by the First Amendment and an attempt to have Trump removed from the presidential election ballots by weaponizing the Department of Justice.
The Holman rule enables lawmakers to introduce amendments to appropriation bills that would reduce the salaries of specific federal workers to $1. This is essentially a way of defunding these offices. In her tweet, Greene argued that Smith was a “terrible attorney” who was abusing his office, power, and the “Department of Injustice.”
