Republicans are preparing to exact revenge after former President Donald Trump was convicted of criminal charges this week, ramping up their investigations into President Joe Biden and Democrats to even the score ahead of the November election.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) was among the first to decry Trump’s guilty verdict, announcing on Friday he would be asking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to appear before Congress in June for a public hearing to discuss the case. Jordan has been investigating the two attorneys over the last several months over allegations the pair had revived the criminal case against Trump to harm his presidential campaign.
“This hearing will examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials, in particular the recent political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” Jordan wrote in letters to Bragg and Colangelo on Friday.
It’s also possible the House Oversight Committee could ramp up its impeachment inquiry into Biden, making it all the more likely the president will face some sort of criminal referral by House investigators. A spokesperson for the committee told the Washington Examiner there was no update at this time on how lawmakers will proceed.
Outside of Capitol Hill, Republican attorneys general across the country are vowing to defend Trump.
Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas was quick to come out against Trump’s verdict, vowing to “unleash every tool at my disposal to fight this blatant corruption and political persecution spewing from New York and the Biden administration.” It’s not entirely clear what that effort will look like, but it’s not the first time Paxton has come to Trump’s defense.
The Texas attorney general previously led efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the Lone Star State, which was ultimately unsuccessful and landed him in trouble with a disciplinary committee of the State Bar of Texas.
Other Republicans, especially those who are rumored to be contenders for positions in a possible Trump administration, have also vowed to challenge the conviction.
Mike Davis, a potential pick for attorney general, even went so far as to tell Axios that GOP prosecutors in Georgia and Florida should open criminal investigations into Democrats to determine whether Trump’s indictment amounts to election interference.
