Oh NOW Republicans Want to Defund the Criminal Justice System?

Well, well, well, it looks like the party of police domination and “justice” at any cost is looking to do a bit of defunding themselves as Donald Trump is looking down the barrel of an upcoming indictment from the federal court in Manhattan, NY.

The former president is being investigated for allegedly directing his “fixer” Michael Cohen to pay hush money, using campaign funds, to adult film star Stormy Daniels so she wouldn’t reveal the affair she had with Trump two weeks before the 2016 election. When the payment was revealed in 2018, Cohen admitted to giving Daniels the money but tried to explain that it came from his own pocket, despite being paid back the same amount by the Trump Organization in monthly installments.

Then, on August 21, 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court to “one count of making an excessive campaign contribution in connection with the hush money,” according to The Hill. Trump, of course, denied any knowledge of the payment and the affair itself til this day.

However, in a post on his absurd MAGA social media network Truth Social last Saturday, Trump said he was expected to be arrested on the following Tuesday in connection with the Daniels case (which didn’t happen). He wrote,

“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”

In typical Republican fashion, they immediately went on the offensive for their orange leader, quickly dismissing the charges against Trump as “fake news” and attempts to get him off the ticket for the 2024 presidential election. These tactics are not new for conservatives, as they will do and say anything to get one of their own out of the hot seat. Their new move, however, is so baffling that it makes my head spin, which is hard for a conservative to do nowadays.

Members of the GOP then threatened to take away federal funding from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office if he were to go through with indicting Trump. In a letter sent to Briggs on Monday, Republican representatives Jim Jordan, James Comer, and Bryan Steil requested that Briggs testify in front of Congress to explain his “politically motivated prosecutorial decision” to bring charges against the former president.

This is a hilarious move from conservatives because they have been roasting liberals and leftists over the coals for their stance on defunding the police and reallocating resources towards more community-driven programs for years. But, once Trump might kinda sorta maybe pay for one of his actual crimes, now Republicans are champing at the bit to get rid of funding to a part of the justice system.

This plan is so blatantly steeped in favoritism towards Trump that even other lifelong conservatives are calling it out as complete BS. Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, pointed out the hypocrisy of GOP lawmakers, saying, “Now you’ve got Republicans talking about ‘We want to take your money from you,'” he said. “If any Democrat behaved this way, these very same people would be losing their s—. It’s that simple.”

I love the energy of defunding the broken criminal justice system, but I couldn’t hate the reasoning for doing so in this case more. So, until Trump is indicated, I guess I’m a justice stan!

(featured image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)