Hakeem Jeffries responds to McCarthy’s threat of using House committee to politicize looming Trump arrest

Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries came out swinging in response to remarks by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) dismissing the looming arrest and indictment of former president Donald Trump as “political vengeance.”

The former president is facing imminent arrest by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office on or around Tuesday, according to Trump’s own post on Truth Social. Trump is being accused of making hush money payments to two women he had affairs with during his 2016 presidential campaign, and will likely face criminal charges of falsifying business records, which could qualify as a felony if the grand jury finds the payments recorded were tied to criminal acts. If the charges are felony charges, Trump could face up to 4 years in prison. 

The House Speaker posted to Twitter on Saturday accusing the Manhattan DA of using the hush money investigation as a political ploy to stick it to the former president. McCarthy said he plans to use the House Subcommittee on Weaponization to investigate whether the DA is using the probe to “subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.” 

McCarthy also slammed Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, saying, “Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump,” 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is from New York, appeared on former White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s premier episode of her new MSNBC show, “Inside with Jen Psaki,” slamming McCarthy’s Tweet. “I strongly disagree with that statement,” he said. “And it’s not clear to me what committee the speaker may be referring to, perhaps the so-called weaponization committee, which is really more appropriately named, the Committee to Protect Insurrectionists.”

The House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government was created by Republican lawmakers in January this year, and tasked with investigating possible instances of political weaponization of the justice system, suppression of conservative viewpoints, and more. Jeffries decried the existence of the committee, saying “Instead of the House majority focusing on the economy, focusing on inflation, focusing on job creation, focusing on health care …[Republicans] continue to peddle conspiracy theories led by this so-called weaponization committee.”

As of the time of this article, Trump had not been arrested or surrendered himself to Manhattan authorities. It is widely expected that the arrest will occur sometime this week.