U.S. Senate To Cast Vote About Donald Trump

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to colleagues on Tuesday that the Senate will vote next week on a resolution criticizing President Trump’s request to “defund” the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The day after he was indicted on state charges in a Manhattan courtroom, Trump tweeted this last week that Republicans in Congress should defund the two federal law enforcement organizations “until they come to their senses.” 

Schumer said in his letter that Trump’s proposal to cut money for federal law enforcement agencies was a self-serving assault against the men and women who keep our nation secure.

It’s unlikely that the GOP-led House would support a plan to completely defund federal law enforcement agencies given the current political climate. The initiative has no chance in the Senate, as Schumer makes clear in his letter, and President Biden will almost certainly veto it.

Schumer is placing Republicans in the unenviable position of choosing between backing law enforcement and standing by Trump, now a presidential candidate in 2024.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is prosecuting Trump criminally for allegedly forging 34 checks to reimburse his attorney Michael Cohen for $130,000 paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI is directly involved in the case. Donald Trump entered a not-guilty plea.

However, the agencies were involved in an earlier investigation of the incident and are central to other ongoing investigations of Trump, such as his keeping of classified documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and his role in the insurrection that occurred on January 6, 2021.

Republicans, including Trump, have traditionally portrayed themselves as defenders of the police. Yet, this month, Jordan appeared on Fox News and threatened to withdraw funding from the FBI and Justice Department.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) stated on Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that “we possess the power of the pocketbook.” And we’ll have to examine the appropriations process and cut funding to the agencies that are doing the most wrong.