Republicans find themselves in a delicate position, backing the president even as they voice concerns over the politicization of institutions traditionally seen as nonpartisan after President Donald Trump openly urged the Justice Department to pursue investigations into his political rivals.
In an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called for politics to be kept out of the judicial system.
“Lawfare in all forms is bad,” the Kentucky Republican said. “We need to get politics out of the judicial system as much as we can,” Paul said.
Paul’s remarks came hours after Trump publicly called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to press forward on investigations against former FBI director, James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times) OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
But even as Paul attempted to walk a fine line — including accusing the Biden administration of weaponizing the judicial system — another Senate Republican appeared to be throwing his support behind Trump’s demand.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) on Sunday appeared to dismiss CNN’s Dana Bash’s question on using the DOJ to go after political opponents.
“If they did something illegal, if they were leaking classified information, if they used their position of power for corruption, then they 100% should be held accountable,” Mullin said on “State of the Union.”
“What President Trump is saying here is it’s time to look into them and hold them accountable for what they said,” he said.
Mullin’s remarks are at odds with Paul’s, who said lawfare, regardless of party, is wrong. Though Paul called former President Joe Biden the “king” of lawfare, he added: “It is not right for the Trump administration to do the same thing.”
For their part, Democrats have been accusing Trump of weaponizing law enforcement to publicly persecute members of their party, including Rep. LaMonica McIver, (D-N.J.) for “impeding and interfering with federal officers” as well as Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) after he attempted to interrupt a Homeland Security press conference.
On Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) continued Democrats’ criticism of Trump — this time for the departure of Erik Siebert, who led the investigation into James on allegations of mortgage fraud.
Siebert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, declined after months of investigation to lodge charges against James. Siebert said he quit; Trump claimed he fired him.
“It’s really important to underscore what happened here, right? This is a Republican U.S. attorney in Virginia who came to the conclusion that the attorney general of New York did nothing wrong. There was no evidence of a crime,” Murphy said. “So Donald Trump, because he doesn’t care about the facts — all he cares about is the threat of imprisonment for his political enemies, so that it suppresses the speech of other people who might speak up — is now going to put his own political loyalist in charge of that investigation.”
