Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has vowed to “grind [the Justice Department] to a halt” in response to the indictment of Donald Trump on charges related to his treatment of classified documents after leaving office.
Trump was arrested and arraigned in Miami on Tuesday. Vance posted a video from the steps of the Capitol earlier in the day declaring that he “will be holding all Department of Justice nominees … I think that we have to grind this department to a halt until [Attorney General] Merrick Garland promises to do his job and stop going after his political opponents.”
In a statement released by his Senate office, Vance carved out an exception to his blockade for “individuals nominated to the U.S. Marshals Service.” The impact of the freeze may also have been overstated by Vance, given that there are currently only two Biden administration nominations to the department awaiting confirmation in the Senate.
The former president has been charged with 37 federal criminal counts, including violations of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a record or document, and concealing a document in a federal investigation. The charges stem largely from Trump’s alleged efforts to prevent the government from recovering the materials.
Vance, like many other Republicans, jumped to Trump’s defense as news of the indictment broke late last week. On Saturday, Vance wrote on Twitter that “prosecuting a president over his own government’s documents is turning a political issue into a legal one.”
“This idea that we need to end the administrative state gets our problem totally backwards. America will have a justice department no matter what,” Vance wrote in a subsequent tweet. “The goal should be to make it responsive to the People. Don’t end it, because it can’t be done. Take it over.”
The Ohio senator is not alone in pushing to punish the DOJ for charging Trump. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a bill on Monday to defund the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the probe into the former president.
“This is a weaponized government attempt to take down the top political enemy and leading presidential candidate of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” Greene said in a floor speech announcing the bill.
Greene, who’s already endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential run, traveled to Georgia to receive Trump’s private plane as he arrived for the state’s GOP convention on Saturday, where he bashed Special Counsel Smith during his first public post-indictment appearance.
As the former president traveled to Miami for his arraignment, Greene lent her support from afar. “I am so sick and tired of those that can’t see the war being waged against us right now by the CORRUPT AND WEAPONIZED COMMUNISTS DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED DOJ!” she tweeted hours before Trump’s court appearance.
“Taking them apart should be the only thing we are doing right now. We do not have a country. People hate Republicans for doing nothing,” Greene added.
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