Former President Donald Trump has called on Congress to defund the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump asserted that Democrats have weaponized law enforcement in this country.
“REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SHOULD DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES,” Trump wrote. “THE DEMOCRATS HAVE TOTALLY WEAPONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT IN OUR COUNTRY AND ARE VICIOUSLY USING THIS ABUSE OF POWER TO INTERFERE WITH OUR ALREADY UNDER SIEGE ELECTIONS!”
The post came one day after Trump was arrested and charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
President Joe Biden has requested $50 billion in funding for the Justice Department in his budget request for the fiscal year beginning on October 1, a sharp increase from the current budget, according to a report from Reuters.
Trump is facing two probes by the Justice Department, both led by a special counsel appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. The first focuses on allegations that the former president attempted to overturn the 2020 election results. The second relates to classified documents he allegedly kept after leaving the White House.
Last month, MSNBC reported that "the list of Republicans open to ‘defunding’ the FBI keeps growing." Among those who are open to the prospect are Rep. Andy Biggs, Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Biggs talks about defunding agencies like the FBI and DOJ. pic.twitter.com/l3qOjnwWH2
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 5, 2022
During is speech at 2023's Conservative Political Action Conference, Rep. Gaetz asserted that "We either get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of, abolish the FBI, the CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of them if they do not come to heel."
In another Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump wrote of his New York charges, “Almost every legal and political analyst has said that the unfair and morally disgusting Indictment filed against me yesterday has NO MERIT, and is not even a case.”
“There was no crime,” he said, “and, anyway, the Statute of Limitations has been violated by many years.”