While Democrats are in celebration mood stating, “Donald Trump is finished”, Republicans also are watching the entire episode as mere silent spectators, while some of the mighty figures in the party, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seem to be just continuing lip-service on taking any action either against Alvin Bragg or advancing cases against Hunter Biden and members of Biden family.
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.
Judge Merchan requested that Trump’s team and the prosecutors’ office work together and send him an agreed-upon order detailing how Trump can interact with sensitive material in the case as it pertains to what he can post on social media.
Many other Republicans issued strong statements in support of Trump.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday night that the state will not cooperate with any request to extradite Trump.
“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American. The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent. Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis said.
Extradition would only be required if Trump refused to leave his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to attend an arraignment hearing in New York.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise tweeted: “The sham New York indictment of President Donald Trump is one of the clearest examples of extremist Democrats weaponizing government to attack their political opponents. Outrageous.”
Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said: “Tonight’s indictment of Donald Trump isn’t about the law. It’s about power. Raw power. It’s the Democrat Party telling the nation they will stop at nothing to control the outcome of the next presidential election. It is an assault on our democracy, pure and simple.”
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate, tweeted: “From everything I have seen from this New York district attorney is that this would be something he’d be doing for political points. I think what we know is, when you get into political prosecutions like this, it’s more about revenge than it is about justice.”
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz responded: “The Democrat Party’s hatred for Donald Trump knows no bounds. The ‘substance’ of this political persecution is utter garbage. This is completely unprecedented and is a catastrophic escalation in the weaponization of the justice system”.
