(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) The special counsel appointed to continue investigating former President Donald Trump has a history of targeting conservatives for persecution, but he might not get a chance to take the helm of the latest witch hunt stemming from the FBI’s militarized raid on Mar-a-Lago.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Friday called for House Republicans to use their new majority to strip funding for the special counsel and strongly indicated that Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is on tap as the likely new House majority leader, was on board with the plan.
Holman Rule.
Look it up!@GOPLeader is going to put it in place.
That means no money for Garland’s politically weaponized Special Counsel.
Don’t promise too many jobs!
Whoops defunded.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 18, 2022
Greene’s declaration doesn’t make clear if McCarthy had endorsed a plan to institute the Holman rule, but it would present an opportunity for the current House minority leader to quiet rumblings from his own party that he’s not politically aggressive enough to tackle the Biden regime.
The archaic Holman rule is a procedural tool that the House can use, but rarely has, to amend appropriations bills to cut the salaries of specific federal workers, effectively defunding them, or fire them outright. It can also be used to cut specific programs.
“We should be able to take and restrict dollars flowing to a particular bureaucrat who we think is not doing the will of the people or following the law,” Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told The Hill in September.
“Take, for example, [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas; take, for example [Anthony] Fauci; take, for example, other bureaucrats, the administration, but also [Attorney General Merrick] Garland and the FBI and what they’re doing,” Roy said.
In the aftermath of the FBI’s raid, McCarthy vowed to launch “immediate oversight” of the Justice Department if Republicans regained a House majority, declaring that the DOJ had “reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization.”
The appointment of former Justice Department official Jack Smith as special counsel to continue investigating Trump would seem to offer a perfect example.
The mainstream regime media has glowingly focused on Smith’s work as prosecutor for a court in The Hague investigating war crimes. But before that, as the DOJ’s public integrity section chief, Smith played an integral role in helping former IRS enforcer Lois Lerner target conservative groups and organizations for exercising their freedom of speech.
Lerner became embroiled in scandal when the IRS was caught allegedly targeting for audits groups that included identifiers like “Tea Party” or “patriot” in their names, and claimed an email crash wiped out any evidence.
When Smith was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight for his alleged role in coordinating the DOJ and IRS initiative, he was a no-show, Government Executive reported at the time.
“It is apparent that the [Justice] Department’s leadership, including Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith, was closely involved in engaging with the IRS in wake of Citizens United and political pressure from prominent Democrats to address perceived problems with the decision,” wrote then-House Oversight chair Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in a letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder.
According to the House Oversight Committee, “the Justice Department convened a meeting with former IRS official Lois Lerner in October 2010 to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits. This meeting was arranged at the direction of Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith.”
The same former “public integrity” agent is now heading the supposedly non-partisan investigation into the Mar-a-Lago raid.
“The corrupt DOJ appoints a special counsel to investigate President Trump the same week he announces a 2024 run,” wrote Arizona GOP Rep. Andy Biggs. “Has there ever been a more politicized and weaponized DOJ in American history?”
Joe Biden has completely weaponized the Department of Justice to attack his political opponents.
3 days ago, Trump announced and now a Special Counsel. 🧐
This is Trump derangement syndrome but this time with a gun and badge. #JusticeCorrupted https://t.co/YvHY4U8XYS
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 18, 2022
Trump blasted the special counsel’s continuation of what he called “the worst politicization of justice in our country,” and told Fox News that he “won’t partake in it.”
“I have been proven innocent for six years on everything — from fake impeachments to [former special counsel Robert] Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?” Trump said.
“It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political,” Trump said, adding that “I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this.”
