Republicans in Congress rallied to Donald Trump’s defense on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, after he disclosed that he had received a letter stating that he was a target in an investigation into attempts to thwart the transfer of power following the 2020 election.
On July 18, 2023, CBS News reported that Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republican House leaders were eager to criticize the Jack Smith-led special counsel investigation of Trump. They said that the former president, who is currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is being unfairly singled out by the Justice Department’s politically motivated investigations.
McCarthy claimed at a press conference that the letter Trump received was a target since it came from “Biden’s America” and that the government is using its authority as a weapon against its main adversary. “If you notice, President Trump recently rose in the polls and was actually ahead of President Biden for reelection,” the man continued. Then, what do they do? Attack their principal adversary by using the government as a weapon. It keeps happening.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican who is currently in the third position in the House, echoed sentiments that were similar to hers when she described the most recent development as “another example of Joe Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice targeting his top political opponent, Donald Trump.”
One of Trump’s most ardent congressional supporters, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, openly expressed her unhappiness with the claimed target letter, labeling it “absolute bulls***.” She argued that imprisoning and falsely accusing Trump was the only way for Democrats to defeat him. Although Trump hasn’t been formally charged as part of Smith’s investigation, it’s still unclear what crimes he could be facing.
Smith, who was chosen by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November, has been investigating potential threats to the peaceful transfer of power or the certification of the Electoral College result on January 6, 2021. In order to prevent Congress from recognizing President Biden’s victory, a group of Trump supporters famously stormed the U.S. Capitol on this day in 2016.
Smith is in charge of two investigations involving Trump, the second of which is the one examining the circumstances surrounding the incident on January 6. Last month, the former president was charged with 37 felonies as a consequence of the special counsel’s investigation into how he handled secret government documents. Trump has asserted his innocence in relation to each charge.