OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
One of President Donald Trump’s most vicious enemies in the Republican Party has actually taken his side in the case brought against by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate, is furious with the case, even as he took another jab at the former president.
“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office. Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda. No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system,” he said.
“The charges and evidence will be duly considered and the outcome decided by a jury with an obligation to fulfill its responsibility with the utmost care and impartiality. The American voters will ultimately render their own judgment on the former President’s political future.
“Finally, it is also incumbent on all elected leaders to discourage violence and anger in response to this situation,” he said.
The Utah Senator is the same Republican who voted to convict the former president in his impeachment based on the January 6 incident at the Capitol.
And he is not the only anti-Trump Republican who has said this case should not have been brought against the former president.
“Bragg’s predecessor didn’t take up the case. The Justice Department didn’t take up the case,” former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said. “Bragg first said he would not take up the case. This is very political, not a matter of justice.”
“In this case, let the jury be the voters,” he said.
More of the Republican party has rallied around the former president in this case.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared that Congress will take action after former President Donald Trump appeared in Manhattan on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges regarding allegations that he falsified business records related to adult film star Stormy Daniels’ hush-money case. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in a case involving his purported role in hush money payments to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, allegedly to keep Daniels quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.
McCarthy voiced his frustration and vowed to hold Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accountable.
“Alvin Bragg is attempting to interfere in our democratic process by invoking federal law to bring politicized charges against President Trump, admittedly using federal funds, while at the same time arguing that the peoples’ representatives in Congress lack jurisdiction to investigate this farce. Not so. Bragg’s weaponization of the federal justice process will be held accountable by Congress,” McCarthy tweeted.
The Manhattan judge presiding over the case against Trump warned the former president on Tuesday to not make statements that could possibly lead to violence. However, the judge did not issue a gag order, which would have limited Trump’s ability to speak about the case.
Judge Juan Merchan said that Trump and other witnesses that prosecutors intend to call should “refrain from making statements likely to incite violence or create civil unrest.”
“Prosecutor Christopher Conroy raised Trump’s recent use of incendiary language on his Truth Social media platform, highlighting a number of the posts during the proceeding and handing the judge several examples printed on paper. Because of the posts, Conroy said, prosecutors are working with Trump’s attorneys to draw up a protective order that would bar the ex-prez from posting sensitive information turned over to his legal team as part of the discovery process in the case,” the New York Post reported.
“The order currently being hashed out would bar Trump from providing the discovery material to any third party and from posting it on social media. Trump would also be required to review any shared sensitive material in the presence of his attorneys, and would not be allowed to take physical copies of such documents with him,” the outlet added.
Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, responded in court by arguing that the grand jury process has already been riddled with leaks and that the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, addressed reporters about his testimony in front of the building where the grand jury met.
