ORLANDO, Fla. — Republicans plan to use their new investigative powers in the House majority to ramp up probes into the Biden family and liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, amid reports that Mr. Bragg is on the verge of indicting former President Donald Trump on felony charges.
An aide to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan told The Washington Times on Sunday that Mr. Jordan’s panel on the weaponization of the federal government “is expected to respond” to Mr. Bragg’s plans to indict Mr. Trump with an investigation and possible hearings.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday doubled down on a pledge that the House GOP, through the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, will investigate Mr. Bragg. Republicans believe the liberal Democratic prosecutor is abusing the power of his office to politically target Mr. Trump, the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate.
Mr. McCarthy said the House will examine the use of federal funds in Mr. Bragg’s office, and to expect an announcement from the weaponization panel about the probe on Monday.
News leaked last week that Mr. Trump is facing an indictment on felony charges from Mr. Bragg’s office relating to hush money he allegedly paid adult performer Stormy Daniels seven years ago. Mr. Bragg elevated what would normally be a misdemeanor offense to a felony charge and is prosecuting the case past the five-year statute of limitations.
Mr. Trump has said he expects to be arrested as soon as Tuesday.
“This is the type of thing America hates and it divides America and it is wrong,” Mr. McCarthy said at an Orlando conference center where House Republicans are meeting this week to map out their agenda.
Mr. McCarthy, of California, accused Mr. Bragg of lowering penalties for serious criminals in crime-ridden New York while ramping up charges against his political opponents.
“It’s interesting to me he spent his whole time as a DA lowering felonies, not to prosecute,” Mr. McCarthy said. “I think Republicans and Democrats alike hate this type of justice.”
Mr. Bragg’s election to office was funded in part by Democrat mega-donor George Soros, who has sought to elect liberal district attorneys aiming for progressive overhauls of the criminal justice system.
Mr. McCarthy said House Republicans would wield their majority to check Mr. Bragg in the same manner they used it earlier this month to block a District of Columbia law that would have reduced penalties for serious crimes, including carjackings.
“Republicans stopped the radical D.C. crime law, and we will investigate any use of federal funds that are used to facilitate the perversion of justice by Soros-backed DA’s across the country,” Mr. McCarthy said Sunday.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, questioned the timing of a leak from Mr. Bragg’s office about the Trump case.
The indictment news leaked right after Mr. Comer revealed he obtained bank records showing the Biden family was involved in a business transaction with a Chinese company that paid them more than $1 million.
Mr. Comer called the DA’s targeting of Mr. Trump “an effort to detract” from the Biden/China probe, adding, “but at the very least, it’s another example of a two-tiered system of justice.”
Mr. Comer said he believes there were nearly a dozen additional business deals made between members of President Joe Biden’s family and China, in addition to the business transaction involving the Chinese company that paid the Bidens over $1 million.
“This is one deal,” Mr. Comer told Fox News Sunday Morning Futures. “We have 11 more to go and I’m pretty confident we’ll be getting more bank records in, very soon.”
Mr. Bragg’s office has declined to speak publicly about whether an indictment or an arrest of the former president is, in fact, imminent.
Mr. Trump on Saturday cited leaked information from the Manhattan district attorney’s office signaling that he would be arrested in the coming days and called for his supporters to protest what he said is a politically driven indictment over alleged hush money payments in 2016.
The former president posted to Truth Social Sunday evening that “the most important witness” in the case against him, a lawyer who represented Mr. Trump’s own former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, would testify Monday before the grand jury in New York City.
“The information he will present will supposedly be conclusive and irrefutable! Witch Hunt!,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social.
House and Senate Republicans who have spoken out publicly about the looming indictment have denounced Mr. Bragg’s probe.
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said he agreed with Mr. McCarthy’s call for House lawmakers to investigate Mr. Bragg.
“No federal dollars should be used to prop up this radical, Soros-backed activist attorney or his gross political attacks,” Mr. Scott said.
House Republican Whip Tom Emmer, Minnesota Republican, called the pending charge “outrageous,” and an example of using the criminal justice system against a political adversary.
Mr. Trump received a standing ovation Saturday at the NCAA wrestling championship held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he appeared at the invitation of Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullen.
He waved to the crowd and held up his fist.
Back at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, a group of protesters gathered on the bridge leading to his estate.
In response to Mr. Trump’s call for protests, Mr. Bragg told staff in an internal memo that he will “not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”
Mr. McCarthy, when asked about Mr. Trump’s call for protests, said people should stick to protesting on social media. He said that is what the former president also meant when he called for his supporters to “protest, protest, protest,” and “take our nation back!” on his Truth Social media site.
“I don’t think people should protest this, no,” Mr. McCarthy said. “And if you talk to President Trump he doesn’t believe this either.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.