House of Representatives candidate Russell Fry waves to a crowd during a rally with former President Donald Trump at the Florence Regional Airport in Florence, S.C., on March 12, 2022. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) has introduced legislation that would allow former President Donald Trump to move the criminal case against him to a federal court.
“I’m proud to introduce the No More Political Prosecutions Act. Politically motivated prosecutors should not be able to wield unwarranted power and target our nation’s top leaders for their own personal gain,” said Fry in an April 11 statement.
He added, “This legislation will prevent the political prosecutions of Presidents and Vice Presidents and thwart corrupt prosecutors’ agendas.”
The bill (H.R.2553) would amend existing federal law to grant current and former presidents and vice presidents the option to move civil and criminal cases against them from state courts to federal courts.
The legislation has since been referred to the Judiciary Committee, on which Fry sits. The South Carolina congressman also sits on the Oversight Committee.
Fry’s bill marks the first legislative response since Trump was indicted in New York on April 4. The former president was charged with 34 accounts of falsifying business records related to hush payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Former President Donald Trump appears in court at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on April 4, 2023. (Steven Hirsch/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and stated that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has “no case” against him. The charges were handed down by a grand jury empaneled by Bragg.
According to Fox News, a Republican aide on Judiciary Committee said the GOP is “absolutely” looking at moving the legislation onto the House floor.
Venues
Like many Republicans, Fry has criticized Bragg for bringing the charges against Trump.
“Today’s arraignment is an attack on the rule of law and will sadly erode confidence in our judicial system for so many Americans,” Fry wrote on Twitter on April 4. “Alvin Bragg is a Soros-funded, far-left local prosecutor interested in doing nothing more than politically persecuting President Trump,” referring to left-wing billionaire financier George Soros.
“This is a dangerous precedent and a grim day for our democracy,” Fry added. “I stand with President Trump.”
A day later, the congressman shared on Twitter an op-ed by Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. He wrote that he agreed with the professor’s arguments and said that Trump’s trial should be held outside of the Democrat-dominated borough of Manhattan.
“So now we have a case brought by a prosecutor who campaigned on bagging Trump, to be tried before a jury selected from a district that elected Bragg in part for that reason—a district that also voted against Trump 84.5 % to 14.5%” in the 2020 presidential election, Fry wrote, quoting Turley.
Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty also recently raised concerns about the venue of the trial.
“The issue with venue is that Manhattan was like 87 percent pro-Joe Biden the last election. It’s a real stronghold of liberalism, of activism, and that infects the whole process,” Trusty told ABC’s “This Week” on April 9.
However, Trusty added that his client’s legal team is focusing on dismissing the indictment and is a “long way out from worrying about” changing venues to a more balanced district like Staten Island.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) presides over a hearing of the Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 9, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Polls
House Republicans are probing Bragg’s prosecution of Trump.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has sought documents and testimony from Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Jordan has also subpoenaed Mark Pomerantz, a former Manhattan prosecutor who pushed for Trump’s indictment.
A recent survey conducted by Morning Consult, which polled 1,981 registered voters between April 5 and April 8, found that 45 percent of voters supported the GOP congressional investigation of Bragg’s grand jury investigation of Trump, while 35 percent disapproved. Twenty percent said they “don’t know” or did not have an opinion.
When broken down by party affiliation, 63 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of Democrats supported the GOP efforts.
Independent voters were split on this issue—39 percent supported, 32 percent disapproved, and 29 percent did not know or did not have an opinion.
Trump has continued to enjoy enormous support among Republican primary voters. According to a separate survey by Morning Consult, Trump had the support of 56 percent of potential Republican primary voters, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in second with 23 percent of support.
“That 33-percentage-point lead over the past several days marks Trump’s largest since Morning Consult’s tracking of the hypothetical matchup began in December,” the survey says.
The survey was conducted from April 7 to April 9 and 3,608 potential GOP primary voters were polled.
Frank Fang is a Taiwan-based journalist. He covers U.S., China, and Taiwan news. He holds a master's degree in materials science from Tsinghua University in Taiwan.
