April 5 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump called on Congress to defund the Department of Justice on Wednesday, a day after he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying documents, becoming the first former president ever to be indicted.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump also accused Democrats of “weaponizing” the law and said the charges against him have no merit.
“Republicans in Congress should defund the DOJ and FBI until they come to their senses,” Trump posted. “The Democrats have totally weaponized law enforcement in our country and are viciously using this abuse of power to interfere with our already under siege elections.”
Trump suggested he has support of the public and the GOP in fighting the charges, which stem from hush-money payments made in 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep silent about her allegations she had an affair with Trump.
“The Democrats have weaponized our system of laws like the USA has never seen before,” Trump said. “The people, however, see what is going on and they will not allow it to continue. Tremendous spirit, right now, in the Republican Party.”
On Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump did his own recap of investigations against him. He urged prosecutors in Atlanta to “drop” a probe into his effort to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. He criticized the federal investigation of his handling of classified documents after he left office.
And he defended his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when the U.S. Capitol was sieged by his supporters during Congress’ certification of the election of President Joe Biden.
“With all of this being said, and with a very dark cloud over our beloved country, I have no doubt nevertheless we will make America great again,” Trump said.
“The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”
He accused Jack Smith, a special counsel in one of Trump’s cases of threatening people with jail time if they did not provide incriminating evidence against him.
“We have this Jack Smith lunatic threatening people every single day through his representatives,” Trump said. “But talk about Trump and you’ll go free. That’s the country in which we live in, however, right now.”
Trump became the first former U.S. president in history to be arrested and indicted on criminal charges when he entered a not guilty plea during a brief hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon.
He has railed against the New York investigation and others as politically motivated that he has done nothing wrong in all the cases.
