As House Republicans meet for an annual conference to tout legislative wins, lawmakers are finding their celebrations to be overshadowed by headlines brewing up north about a looming indictment of former President Donald Trump.
GOP lawmakers are gathered in Orlando, Florida, this week for the party’s annual issues conference in which Republicans revel in their successes while mapping out a path forward. However, those talks have largely been overshadowed by Trump’s announcement over the weekend that he expects to be arrested regarding his alleged involvement in a 2016 hush money scheme.
REPUBLICANS DECRY POSSIBLE TRUMP INDICTMENT AS ‘ABUSE OF POWER’
Republicans began their conference on Sunday afternoon, lauding the recent successes of GOP-led legislation that made its way through both chambers of Congress and onto President Joe Biden’s desk. One such piece of legislation was a bill overriding the revised Washington, D.C., criminal code that Biden signed on Monday despite pushback from several House Democrats.
However, reporters were quick to turn their attention to the news of a possible Trump indictment coming as soon as this week and the former president’s suggestions that his supporters should “protest” and “take our nation back.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) denounced the looming indictment, accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of political overreach.
“It has nothing to do with whether [Trump] runs for president again or not. What it really has to do with [is] the core of our nation. One of our greatest strengths is the rule of law,” McCarthy said. “Other DAs have looked at this and said no, it doesn’t meet the criteria.”
However, McCarthy pushed back on Trump’s comments that his supporters should protest his arrest, noting that “we want calmness out there” without “violence or harm.”
Other Republicans backed his calls for protests although clarified that any pushback to Trump’s indictment should be peaceful.
“Look, peaceful protests are right of the American people. And so I support peaceful protests and if they have the right to have peaceful protests,” said Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), according to the Hill. “If the American people want to have a peaceful protest, that is something that we support.”
Still, Republicans appeared frustrated over the heavy news cycle, lamenting that Trump’s looming charges were being overblown.
“You guys are the ones that are making a story. The story really should be about [President] Biden, for instance, being compromised because of all the money his family has gotten from China, but nobody’s writing about that,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN). “We’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing.”
Emmer’s comments come after House Republicans announced on Monday they would be opening investigations into Bragg and his conduct surrounding Trump’s indictment. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) wrote a letter to Bragg demanding communications, documents, and testimony related to the case.
“You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former president of the United States and current declared candidate for that office,” they wrote. “If these reports are accurate, your actions will erode confidence in the evenhanded application of justice and unalterably interfere in the course of the 2024 presidential election.”
Reports of a looming indictment emerged after former Trump attorney Michael Cohen testified before the Manhattan grand jury multiple times earlier this month.
Cohen was convicted in 2018 after pleading guilty to paying two women who accused Trump of sexual affairs to be silent, which included porn star Stormy Daniels. As part of the scheme, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 and was later reimbursed by the Trump Organization.
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Manhattan prosecutors later opened an investigation into whether Trump falsified business records to list the reimbursement as a legal expense. Such a crime is a misdemeanor in New York but could be enhanced to a felony if Bragg’s office argues the fraud was intended to conceal a second crime.
At the time of Cohen’s trial, federal prosecutors did not press charges against Trump due to guidance from the Justice Department that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. However, prosecutors revived discussions about possible charges shortly before Trump left office in 2021.
