Donald Trump has called on Republican politicians to cut funding for the FBI and the Department of Justice following his appearance in court as he was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges laid out against him, and has since returned to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida where he gave a speech attacking those who will participate in his trial.
The former US president was officially arrested earlier this week as part of the investigation into an alleged payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels.
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It's the first time a US president has been charged with a crime, and Trump has slated the charges he is due to face as a politically motivated attempt to bring him down though he has already pivoted to selling merchandise about his arrest.
In a speech after appearing in court, he attacked Judge Juan Merchan's family as 'Trump hating' and slammed New York district attorney Alvin Bragg as a 'criminal'.
He's also been active on his own social media platform, Truth Social, where he demanded that politicians loyal to him cut funding for law enforcement.
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Writing in full caps, he wrote: "REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SHOULD DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES.
"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."
He is not the only major Republican to suggest such a move, with House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan saying that the Republican controlled House of Representatives telling Fox News his party 'control the power of the purse'.
Jordan said he wanted to 'look at the appropriations process and limit funds going to some of these agencies', especially ones he claimed were engaging in 'egregious behaviour'.
Asked if this meant defunding the FBI and DoJ he simply said 'yeah', but any ambitions in that direction could expect to be blocked by a Democrat controlled Senate.
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Senate Democrats said there were 'no circumstances under which we will defund federal law enforcement', with Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz slamming the idea as 'bad policy' and 'worse politics'.
Any hopes Trump had of pushing through defunding for law enforcement look to be a non-starter as there are Republicans in the Senate who also oppose the idea.
Maine Senator Susan Collins said she would 'strongly oppose defunding the FBI and the Department of Justice', while Lindsey Graham said he was 'not for defund the police'.
Topics: US News, News, Politics, Police, Donald Trump, Crime