Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wasted little time after 163 Democrats voted to save his speakership to announce he would not use Congress’s constitutional power of the purse to stop special counsel Jack Smith’s “lawfare” against Donald Trump.
The Speaker, in some of his earliest public comments after Democrats saved his gavel, refused to make any attempt to defund Smith’s office as it continues its prosecutions of Trump.
“That’s not something you wave a wand and just eliminate the special counsel as a provision,” Johnson told Politico. “There is a necessity for a function like that, because sometimes the Department of Justice — which is an executive branch agency — can’t necessarily, without a conflict of interest, investigate or prosecute the president who’s their boss, or the president’s family.”
When asked straightforwardly if he would write language eliminating Smith’s job into appropriations bills, Johnson replied “no.”
Mike Johnson when asked if he will stop the witch hunt that aims to throw President Trump in jail FOR LIFE! pic.twitter.com/MyosP1FAMj
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 9, 2024
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) disdainfully pointed out Johnson’s statement on X, writing, “Mike Johnson when asked if he