GOP lawmaker unveils push to block funding for Trump prosecutions

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., is planning to use the upcoming government spending fight to pump the breaks on the federal and state prosecutions targeting former President Trump.

“Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars have no place funding the radical Left’s nefarious election interference efforts,” Clyde told Fox News Digital. “Together, Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, and Fani Willis intentionally brought four sham indictments against the sitting president’s top political opponent, President Donald J. Trump, as the upcoming 2024 presidential election ramps up.”

Clyde is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which has been tasked with assembling 12 different spending bills for the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.

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Republican Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, right, is unveiling the House GOPs latest push to defund the prosecutions against former President Trump.

He said on Monday that he intends to introduce two amendments to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, which allocates funding to the Justice Department, among other offices. 

Both would prevent federal funds from going toward the prosecution of a major presidential candidate ahead of the 2024 White House race. The first is aimed at federal cases and the second at state prosecutions.

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Trump’s allies have rallied around him in the wake of his four criminal indictments, accusing prosecutors in each case of playing politics to kneecap his front-runner status in the 2024 GOP primary. The former president is facing 91 total charges, including two cases related to his alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 loss.

U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Clyde on Monday dismissed the cases as “witch hunt” efforts and said he had “serious concerns” about how they were being handled.

It comes after a flurry of GOP proposals with the similar aim of defunding the cases against Trump. Many have specifically targeted Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two separate federal indictments against the former president – one for his handling of classified documents and another related to the 2020 election.

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“The American people get to decide who wins the White House — not Deep State actors who have shamelessly attacked Donald Trump since he announced his first bid in 2015. It is imperative that Congress use its power of the purse to protect the integrity of our elections, restore Americans’ faith in our government, and dismantle our nation’s two-tiered system of justice,” Clyde said.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks in the Fulton County Government Center during a news conference, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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“I’m fully committed to helping lead this effort, and I call on my House Appropriations colleagues to join me in this righteous fight.”

If Clyde’s amendments make it through the legislative process and end up on the House floor for a vote, they face a decent prospect of passing under the GOP’s razor-thin majority. However, the measures are likely dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled Senate.