Trump calls to defund Justice Department and FBI after becoming first president to face criminal charges

Former president accuses Democrats of weaponising law enforcement to interfere with elections

A day after he became defendant Donald Trump, pleading not guilty to 34 felony charges in a Manhattan courtroom, the former president angrily called on Republican lawmakers to defund the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr Trump made the call on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday morning following what has been described as a “boring” and a “complete missed opportunity” of a speech to supporters at his Florida home on Tuesday night.

The first former US president to ever be indicted on criminal charges called for the undermining of the US justice system, writing: “REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SHOULD DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES.”

He continued: “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!”

On Tuesday Mr Trump appeared before New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan to answer charges relating to hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, Playboy model Karen McDougal, and a doorman at one of his properties.

The former president is not alone in publicly making such incendiary comments about the rule of law in the US. On Sunday, Ohio Rep Jim Jordan also backed the idea of defunding the DOJ and FBI.

He told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business’s Sunday Morning Futures: “We’re going to have to look at the appropriations process and limit funds going to some of these agencies.”

Asked if he was referring to the Justice Department and FBI, Mr Jordan confirmed he was.

Following his historic arrest and arraignment in New York on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Trump flew back to Palm Beach for what was expected to be a fiery, rallying cry to his supporters.

Instead, the former president gave a relatively short, low-energy speech listing his grievances and personally attacking Judge Merchan and his family, as well as calling Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg a criminal, while also hitting out at the prosecutors in the various other cases against him in New York, Georgia, and the DOJ’s investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot.

Supporters of the former president had expected a fired-up Mr Trump to take to the stage at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night but were left disappointed by a flat performance from the newly-arraigned defendant.

Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was unimpressed, telling RealClearPolitics: “He had a great day with the weakness of the indictment. But this speech was just … boring.”

He added that the remarks were “a complete lost opportunity” because voters, including some who didn’t support Trump in the last election, “tuned in wanting to sympathise with him, to support him. And he gave them almost zero reason to do so”.

If Mr Trump were to take that scripted approach on the road, Mr Mulvaney predicted, “no one will come to a rally to watch that speech”.