After Trump Conviction, GOP Lawmakers Attack U.S. Justice System | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON — Republican leaders blasted Donald Trump’s responsible verdict on Thursday — and casually trashed the whole U.S. justice system.

“This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) mentioned in an announcement, falsely suggesting that President Joe Biden orchestrated the case.

“The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden Administration,” Johnson mentioned, “and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents.”

“Absolute injustice,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who’s vying to be Trump’s vice presidential decide, mentioned in an announcement. “This erodes our justice system. Hear me clearly: You cannot silence the American people. You cannot stop us from voting for change.”

Their feedback have been typical for GOP lawmakers within the aftermath of Trump’s verdict. It’s the most recent signal that high Republicans are ditching their “law and order” model of their efforts to suck as much as Trump amid his post-presidential authorized woes. Johnson, Scott and different GOP lawmakers have spent the previous couple of weeks flocking to Trump’s trial in New York City to seem on tv with him, and to assault the choose, the court docket and the rule of regulation itself.

It’s additionally a continuation of the hole-digging Trump has pressured Republicans to do to excuse his steady flouting of norms and legal guidelines — a challenge that has accelerated significantly within the years since Trump misplaced the 2020 election.

After Trump incited a riot on the U.S. Capitol as a part of his schemes to illegally stay in energy, Republicans have more and more downplayed the assault. In 2023, after they retook the House of Representatives, Republicans launched a “Weaponization of Government” committee to place all depredations in opposition to the Trump motion in a single large class, with the prison instances in opposition to Trump himself all the time front-and-center.

On Friday, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), demanded Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who led Trump’s prosecution, testify in regards to the case in June.

“This hearing will examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials, in particular the recent political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” Jordan mentioned in a letter to Bragg.

Trump was discovered responsible on 34 counts of falsifying enterprise information to cover election-year hush cash funds to Stormy Daniels, an grownup movie star who mentioned she had intercourse with Trump in 2006. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified that he despatched cash on the previous president’s behalf and disguised it as funds for different providers.

For all their fuming, Republicans aren’t denying the allegations in opposition to Trump. Instead, they’re blaming Biden, calling the case a “selective prosecution,” whining that Cohen is a liar (whereas not disputing his precise testimony), complaining that the costs ought to have been misdemeanors fairly than felonies or saying that the choose was corrupt as a result of his daughter earns a dwelling in Democratic politics.

“We need to understand what are the connections between big Democratic money and this sham prosecution,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) mentioned on Fox News, baselessly planting the concept Democratic donor George Soros advised Bragg to go after Trump.

Trump nonetheless faces further state and federal fees for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, in addition to a federal case concentrating on his hoarding of categorized authorities paperwork after he left the White House. For Republicans, these instances are simply extra proof of the Democratic conspiracy in opposition to Trump, and it’s not potential that Trump may have dedicated a prison offense.

In the Republican model of the universe, through which the Justice Department solely exists to persecute Trump, there isn’t any ongoing prison prosecution in opposition to the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Meanwhile, the general public corruption instances in opposition to two Democratic members of Congress, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), are successfully window dressing.

If Trump retakes the White House this November, his allies have been plotting find out how to remodel the Justice Department into an assault canine for right-wing causes. At least one lawmaker known as for authorized revenge after Trump’s verdict.

“Time for Red State AGs and DAs to get busy,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) mentioned on social mediareferring to state and native prosecutors.

Republicans have additionally glossed over the truth that Trump’s responsible verdict was determined not by Democratic politicians, however by a jury of 12 New York residents, who Trump personally helped to select for his trial.

Trump was “very much involved” in deciding on his jury, his lawyer, Todd Blanche, mentioned Thursday evening on Fox News. “He was right there with the whole team talking about the potential jurors.”

And even because the jury delivered a unanimous responsible verdict, Blanche mentioned the jurors “were great.”

“They showed up on time every day. They were committed. They paid attention,” he mentioned. “But, we’re in a situation where we had a very limited number of people we could strike.”

But Republicans rejected the concept Trump had been tried by a jury of his friends, suggesting that New York residents merely can’t be honest as a result of the state tends to vote Democrat.

As Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) put it on social media, “New York is a liberal shit hole.”

Larry Hogan, the previous governor of Maryland and a present U.S. Senate candidate, was the one high-profile Republican on Thursday to make an announcement about respecting the result of the trial and the rule of regulation, no matter what occurred.

“I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process,” Hogan posted on social media earlier than the decision was introduced. “At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders—regardless of party—must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”

He was swiftly condemned by Trump supporters — and instantly by Trump senior advisor Chris LaCivita.

“You just ended your campaign,” LaCivita replied to Hogan’s message.