Donald Trump Jr. joined the growing criticism of a proposed short-term spending legislation to fund the federal government Wednesday, bashing a section that critics say would interfere with possible investigations of the defunct House Jan. 6 committee.
The section cited by the son of the president-elect would allow lawmakers to block subpoenas that demand information from the House.
“So the house is going to vote to protect itself from glaring and obvious wrongdoing?” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X. “The American people didn’t vote for this. They voted for the opposite. They voted for transparency. This cannot pass.”
His post was responding to another post that pointed out the anti-subpoena provision in the stopgap measure. The section says that, “upon a motion made promptly by a House office or provider for a House office, a court of competent jurisdiction shall quash or modify any legal process directed to the provider for a House office if compliance with the legal process would require the disclosure of House data of the House office.”
A prominent House Republican said this week that the FBI should investigate former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, over her involvement in the probe.
“Based on the evidence obtained by this subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former vice chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” said an interim report released by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Georgia Republican who chairs the House Administration’s oversight subcommittee.
The report alleged that Ms. Cheney “tampered with at least one witness, [former Trump White House aide] Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without her attorney’s knowledge.”
The president-elect has said members of the former Jan. 6 committee should go to jail for their probe, which resulted in referral to the Justice Department of criminal charges against Mr. Trump. But Mr. Trump also has said he would not direct his attorney general or FBI director to investigate the lawmakers.
The continuing resolution was released Tuesday night and is a whopping 1,500 pages. It includes disaster aid for those affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton, and aid for farmers, among other provisions.
However, House Republicans are not happy with Speaker Mike Johnson’s short-term funding bill that would extend the government funding deadline to March 14. Government funding is set to expire on Friday.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the duo put in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency by Mr. Trump, have also come out against the stopgap measure.
“This bill should not pass,” Mr. Musk wrote on X.
Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said Wednesday on “Fox & Friends” that he and the DOGE duo have discussed the bill, and that Mr. Ramaswamy acknowledged that Mr. Johnson is facing a tough decision.
He has also defended the bill by saying that it will punt the funding deadline into Mr. Trump’s first 100 days in office, paving the way for the then-fully GOP controlled Congress to craft a spending bill they would approve of.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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