Horowitz: Rep. Clyde lays down gauntlet on defunding Trump prosecutions in DOJ funding bill

Donald Trump has now been indicted on 91 federal or state criminal charges in four different cities, in three of which it will be impossible to get a fair jury pool. The jury pool in D.C. has already convicted people of offenses carrying years of prison time for simply stepping into the Capitol, and judges have given enhanced sentencing and pretrial holding simply for expressing support for Trump. Thus, the man himself certainly doesn’t stand a chance staying out of prison, with hundreds of years of prison time looming over him and an incorrigibly biased jury pool.

There is only one way to stop Trump from going to jail and, more importantly, prevent the cementing of the precedent the DOJ has already established of criminalizing the political views of the opposition. House Republicans must refuse to fund the DOJ for a minute past midnight, October 1, unless that operative appropriation bill contains a provision defunding the prosecutions against Trump and all similar politically targeted FBI and DOJ operations, surveillance programs, and prosecutions that are prima facie aimed at political opponents.

Bizarrely, Trump himself has not called for this, and surprisingly, he told Glenn Beck on Tuesday that he doesn’t see himself going to jail. But should we really leave that to chance? Thankfully, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a Freedom Caucus member of the Appropriations Committee, is proposing two amendments to the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill that would defund the prosecutions. The pair of amendments would bar funding for federal prosecutions against a candidate running for president in this election, which would include Jack Smith’s office, as well as a separate provision barring funding for state prosecutors’ offices doing the same.

While this is a good start, such an effort shouldn’t be relegated to a backbencher’s amendment. Speaker McCarthy and his leadership team should place this provision in the core of any funding bill that is ultimately designed to keep government funded.

Now is the time for those concerned about political targeting and “the end of democracy as we know it” to fish or cut bait. Impeaching Biden, while not a bad idea, will not stop the prosecutions and will obviously get crushed in the Senate, because, unlike a defund fight, it lacks the leverage of the default position of a government shutdown. It will just allow McCarthy to distract from selling us out on the budget and a defund fight, which frankly is needed to defund many other odious practices of the Biden administration anyway. We are simply out of time and cannot go on like this any longer.

Unlike many of my colleagues in conservative talk radio, I actually believe my own talking points. Despite not being an ardent Trump supporter, I actually believe we have crossed the Rubicon – not just with the targeting of Trump but the targeting of his supporters for the past few years. We cannot continue funding an FBI and DOJ that target parents at school board meetings, pro-life activists, and religious Catholics or that hold people for months without bail for public trespassing simply because of their political views.

I actually agree with the talking point that this is about something much greater than Trump and that we are facing an existential threat of government agencies being permanent enemies of political opponents. As such, mug shots, merchandise, and campaign donations are not going to cut it. If we really believe the feds are going to lock him up, which all indications imply, we can’t wait for January 2025 to redress this issue.

The fight must happen now, and we must not allow House leadership to kick the can down the road to December. The minute they kick the can down the road, they lose their leverage, because Democrats will rightfully view this new GOP House majority as no less reluctant to use government funding as leverage than the Boehner and Ryan-era majorities.

Trump and his supporters are not behaving in a way that indicates they are serious about their own apocalyptic rhetoric. When asked whether he is concerned that he’d have to campaign from a jail cell, Trump told Beck, “I don't think that's ever happening. We have a great case.” He went on to compare it to Russiagate and the Mueller probe that fell apart. The difference here, of course, is that there are 91 definitive charges in front of unfair judges and juries. We all say blue cities are Soviet-style gulags but then don’t believe our own talking points when it comes to gaming out Trump’s future. The strength of Trump’s defense is meaningless in the face of the D.C. gulag. Just ask hundreds of January 6 defendants. There is no logical reason to believe the trial jurors will be any less biased than the members of the grand jury.

Either Trump is aloof to his own peril or is privy to some sort of inside game we are not aware of. But taking his predicament – and our own predicament – at face value, the fiscal year 2024 funding bill is the last chance to force a national debate on the dangerous weaponization of government. Trump might feel he has some magic potion, but the rest of those politically targeted certainly do not and are in need of immediate redress. They will not be able to remain on the golf courses of Mar-a-Lago for the rest of their lives like Trump.

The DOJ has just successfully convicted five pro-life activists on charges carrying 11 years in prison simply for peacefully blocking entry to an abortion clinic. They were not convicted for what they did but for what they believe, because right now there are hundreds of climate activists blocking major roadways, much more dangerously to the public, and none of them is serving time in prison. If this is really about more than Trump, we need to act now, regardless of whether he wants to focus exclusively on tit-for-tat with Biden, slandering DeSantis, or selling merchandise.

We need a defund fight for numerous reasons. We must defund catch-and-release at the border, the vaccines, castration of minors, the Green New Deal, and yes, the political targeting of all of us. But we have been told for the past few months that none of that matters in the face of Trump’s indictment. Our future all boils down to his future. So if that is true, why are we not pursuing the one avenue that will actually force a national brinksmanship over the issue? House investigations of the Biden crime family, while good as a stand-alone proposition, will not rectify the political targeting.

Republicans, after skipping town since late July, won’t even come back the week of Labor Day along with Senate Democrats. Nobody in the party is serious about the indictments or the other existential crises we face. Rep. Clyde has created a rallying point. Regardless of whom one backs in the primary, we all agree that the totalitarianism needs to stop. So let’s act like it.