House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called the case against Donald Trump over money paid to silence Stormy Daniels an “outrageous abuse of power” as top Republicans hit back at the former president’s claim that he will be arrested. in a few days.
McCarthy called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose team is leading the investigation, a “radical district attorney who lets violent criminals through while seeking political revenge against President Trump.” Trump says he will be impeached on Tuesday and has urged Americans to protest the decision.
McCarthy said: “I am directing the relevant committees to immediately investigate whether federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-place House Republican, also issued a statement calling the possibility of charges against Trump “disgraceful.”
She said: ‘This is un-American and the radical left has reached a new dangerous low of third world countries. Knowing that they cannot beat President Trump at the polls, the radical left will now follow the lead of the socialist dictators and will reportedly arrest President Trump.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, have drawn the ire of the GOP over the possibility of Trump being indicted in the Stormy Daniels case in few days.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he has ordered an investigation into whether “federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted Saturday that the charges against Trump will only help his presidential campaign.
“The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than anyone else in the United States,” Graham said at the Palmetto Family Council Vision ’24 presidential forum on Saturday.
“I don’t think that’s the right approach,” Graham told DailyMail.com after his appearance in North Charleston. ‘I think what you should do is fight this in court of law. He is going to win. This is an overreach on the part of the Manhattan DA.
“I think it will help him politically,” the South Carolina Republican reiterated.
Trump would become the first former president in history to be charged with a crime if prosecutors take the extraordinary step of charging him. But some legal experts say the case is unlikely to succeed.
Trump and his supporters criticized the investigation as a political witch hunt designed to prevent his 2024 re-election bid.
Mike Pence, who was Trump’s vice president but has fiercely criticized him since he left the White House, said he was “like many Americans … taken aback” by the news that charges will be filed in a few days.
Pence told SiriusXM’s Breitbart News on Saturday: “You literally have a Democrat side that literally dismantled the criminal justice system in [New York]undermining the NYPD, and this is what the Manhattan DA says is his top priority?
It reeks of the kind of political persecution we suffered in the days of the Russia hoax.
Mike Pence, who was vice president in the Trump White House, said the case “reeks of the kind of impeachment we suffered in the days of the Russia hoax.”
Senator Lindsey Graham told DailyMail.com the Daniels case was “an overreach by the Manhattan prosecutor” adding “I think it’s going to help [Trump] politically’
Rudy Giuliani, a former attorney for the Southern District of New York and Trump’s former personal attorney, said: “Bragg’s indictment of President Trump for a trumped-up crime is the last straw in destroying the reputation of the US Attorney’s office. largest district in the United States.
“Bought and paid for by your man who despises American nationalism, George Soros.”
A Trump spokesman said: “There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks by the Department of Justice and the prosecutor’s office, to NBC and other fake news outlets, that the George Soros-funded radical left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his witch hunt to the next level.
“President Trump is rightly highlighting his innocence and the gunplay of our system of injustice. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!’
Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, called the case “politically popular” but “legally pathetic.”
Trump could be charged with falsifying business records in connection with payments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty to using campaign finances in connection with Daniels. The former president could also face charges related to violations of electoral law.
Turley told DailyMail.com: ‘I’m not sure Bragg can take this case under the statute of limitations.
“However, if you can fit the federal charge into a state case, you still face considerable challenges to a conviction. This is a notoriously difficult theory to prosecute, although this is the best jury group a prosecutor could hope for.
Trump, pictured on January 6 shortly before riots broke out at the Capitol, has called on his supporters to protest his impending impeachment.
Trump’s call for demonstrations is similar to his rallying cry to protest his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, which he claims was rigged. Pictured: Riot police push back a crowd of Trump supporters after they stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Federal prosecutors reportedly did not consider charging Trump for the payments while he was still in office due to guidance from the Justice Department that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
They revisited the matter after he left the White House, but chose not to seek impeachment because the issue seemed “trivial and outdated” after the January 6 riots and scrutiny over Trump’s role in causing it, a CNN legal analyst book. Elie Honig said.
Law enforcement officials are tightening security around the New York County Supreme Court amid the expected announcement of criminal charges.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will meet today to discuss how to handle the announcement of Trump’s indictment and arrest.
Officials are also preparing for demonstrations that could turn violent after Trump’s provocative call for Americans to “protest, protest, protest” while speaking online about the legal case.
