MTG Announces Plan to Defund Special Counsel Probing Trump

AG Merrick Garland just announced that he is appointing a Special Counsel to look into former President Donald Trump and his allies over their role in January 6th, saying:

“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”

Well, predictably, Trump blew up after that announcement and demanded that the GOP start fighting back against the DOJ on his behalf, saying:

“It is unfair to the country, to the Republican Party, and I don’t think people should accept it. I am not going to accept it. The Republican Party has to stand up and fight.”

Somewhat surprisingly given the spaghetti spines GOP leaders usually have once they make it into power, it’s looking like that might actually happen in the House.

News on that comes from MTG.

She tweeted that the now GOP-controlled House would use the Holman Rule to defund the Special Counsel, though whether that is a speculative plan or one that House leadership has actually decided on is unclear. In her words:

Holman Rule.

Look it up!

@GOPLeader
is going to put it in place.

That means no money for Garland’s politically weaponized Special Counsel.

Don’t promise too many jobs!

Whoops defunded.

The Holman Rule was first enacted in 1876, then rescinded under Reagan in 1983, then brought back in a limited way by the Republican-controlled legislature in January of 2017, and then rescinded again by the Democrats in 2019.

The limited, 2017 version of the rule allows the legislature to pass amendments to appropriations legislation if those amendments either fire or reduce the salary of specific employees of the federal government or cut funding to a specific program.

Specifically, it provides that “any provision or amendment … that retrenches expenditures by—(1) the reduction of amounts of money in the bill; (2) the reduction of the number and salary of the officers of the United States; or (3) the reduction of the compensation of any person paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”

So, theoretically, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives could bring back the Holman Rule, likely the 2017 version approved by that Congress, and then use it as justification and a legal basis for either firing or eliminating the salary of the Special Counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, Jack Smith.

We’ll see what happens and if the GOP actually follows through with MTG’s plan for taking the fight to Merrick Garland and his Special Counsel Appointment or if the GOP shies away from a controversial fight with the Deep State and powers that be. However, given the rumblings of discontent within the party over how midterms went and discontent among the more conservative voters with McConnell’s accommodative stance toward Democrats in the Senate, perhaps the next Speaker of the House (likely Kevin McCarthy) will take a harder line stance and attempt to pass then use the Holman Rule.