A top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is hinting that congressional Democrats may have a way to check the power of President Donald Trump as he seeks to control the Department of Justice (DOJ) and carry out vendettas against his political enemies.

During an appearance on CNN Monday evening, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) was asked by host Anderson Cooper:

“What can Democrats really do when it comes to oversight of the president? I mean, now that impeachment is over, does seem like there are fewer and fewer guardrails, if any.”

The congressman told Cooper that the House may use the power of the purse to rein in Trump and his agenda:

“Well, they’re constantly coming to the Congress for more money for new programs, or changes to existing programs, or they’re coming to the Congress and the House for appropriations. And so I think at this point, I think we have to use each of those opportunities as a chance to basically make sure that if we are going to provide further funding, or we are going to authorize extensions of existing programs or new programs, that it be conditioned on good behavior, and there isn’t really a lot of that going on right now at the DOJ.”

Congressman Krishnamoorthi then added:

“Especially given what we know about the [Roger] Stone situation, but also the fact that Attorney General Barr has called for a second line of prosecutors to basically micromanage or question the decisions in the Michael Flynn prosecution, and now he set up some kind of inbox or some kind of special corridor for Rudy Giuliani to provide dirt to the DOJ about the Bidens or current enemies of the president from Ukraine.”

Imagine a scenario where the House refuses to provide a dime of funding for the Justice Department or provide any money to allow for investigations, the DOJ would be unable to perform its duties and do Trump’s dirty work. That could put an end to Trump’s targeting of his political opponents with the DOJ’s assistance.

We could be in for some interesting developments in the months ahead.

Featured Image Via NBC News