Exclusive: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Fox News Digital that he is proposing a budget proposal that would “defund the loafing activities” of state and federal prosecutors leading “politically sensitive investigations,” specifically pointing out Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The proposal came just days after former President Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records that Bragg charged him with.
Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, leaves a Republican caucus on the Capitol on Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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Trump is currently awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether he will be granted immunity from charges filed against him in the Jan. 6 Smith investigation, as well as a trial date for charges filed in Smith’s secret records case and a trial date for charges filed by Willis in Georgia.
Jordan sent the proposal to House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) on Monday, and the letter and proposal were obtained by Fox News Digital.
“The Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government will continue their rigorous oversight of the Biden Administration as it works to protect the fundamental freedoms of the American people,” Jordan wrote.
Last year, Jordan helped implement reforms through the spending process, including “proposals to ban funding for politically sensitive investigations, protect whistleblowers from retaliation, prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to implement extreme regulations, ban funding for disastrous Biden immigration policies, and end funding for government censorship, all of which were included in bills passed by subcommittees and the full committee.”
Jordan said he hopes to further this initiative as we move towards fiscal 2025.
Former President Trump appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Thursday, May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Poole)
Jordan said that over the past year he has overseen “an alarming increase in political prosecutions and the use of vicious ‘loafer’ tactics targeting political opponents.”
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“We have seen corrupt prosecutors abuse their professional codes of conduct and their obligation to do justice for political purposes,” he said.
Jordan recommended that the fiscal year 2025 spending package include language that would “eliminate federal funding to state prosecutors and state attorneys general who engage in loafing and zero out federal funding to federal prosecutors who engage in such misconduct.”
District Attorney Alvin Bragg made the remarks at a press conference in Manhattan on March 7, 2024. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Jordan noted that the House Judiciary Committee has already passed specific bills, the No Political Prosecutions Act and the Forfeiture Funds Spending Transparency Act, that would help address politicized prosecutions.
“Let’s never forget these important facts,” Jordan said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “Alvin Bragg campaigned on how he was going to ‘get Trump.’ Once the investigation began and we realized how absurd this case was, he said he couldn’t imagine a world in which he would indict President Trump and call Michael Cohen as a prosecution witness, but the point is, after President Trump announced he was running for president, that’s exactly what he did.”
Jordan then pointed to Willis, who was investigating 2020 election interference in Fulton County, Georgia.
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“Fani Willis began her investigation in February 2021, but did nothing or bring charges until after President Trump announced his candidacy for president,” Jordan said.
“And perhaps the biggest one of all is Jack Smith, who Merrick Garland appointed as special counsel three days after President Trump announced his candidacy for president,” Jordan added.
“All of this is completely driven by politics,” Jordan told Fox News Digital.
Jordan said the aim of the proposal is to “defund loafer activities.”
Donald Trump and Jack Smith (Getty Images)
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges arising from the investigations by Bragg, Smith and Willis.
Separately, Jordan urged Chairman Kohl to focus Congress on “restraining abusive federal law enforcement agencies.”
Jordan said the committee has received testimony this year about “gross misconduct, misallocation of federal law enforcement resources, and misconduct within its leadership” at the FBI.
“We recommend that the Appropriations Committee include language to eliminate funding that is not essential to the FBI’s mission, including reversing past appropriations and prohibiting new taxpayer funding for new FBI headquarters facilities,” he wrote. “We also recommend that FBI funding be tied to specific policy changes that promote FBI accountability and transparency, such as requiring the FBI to record interviews.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during a hearing in the case of State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump, March 1, 2024, at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Alex Slits Pool/Getty Images)
On immigration, Jordan recommended banning taxpayer money from being used for the Biden administration’s “open borders immigration policy.”
Jordan also proposed efforts to protect free speech online by banning taxpayer funds from being “used to censor Americans online or to classify speech as ‘misinformation, disinformation or fraud.'”
Jordan also called on the committee to eliminate the spending of taxpayer funds on the CIA’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Foreign Influence and Disinformation Office, the Global Engagement Center and other government and non-government agencies “engaged in the suppression of free speech.”
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Jordan also proposed language to prevent federal funding from going to jurisdictions across the country that choose to cut police budgets to address rising crime in America’s cities.
“On behalf of the Committee and the Select Subcommittee, I enclose a proposed list of priorities for inclusion in the FY 2025 appropriations bill. As with last year, these proposals result 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 remains a powerful check on the weaponization of the federal government.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the offices of Smith, Bragg and Willis.
