Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to task after former President Donald Trump was indicted, saying Bragg could be forced out of office and into court himself. “Wonder if DA Bragg remembers Durham DA Mike Nifong who withheld exculpatory DNA tests on the Duke lacrosse players. He was subsequently forced out of office, disbarred, and convicted of contempt of court,” Paul said, referring to Nifong, the district attorney in the 2006 case accusing Duke University lacrosse players of rape. The three players were exonerated and Nifong even spent one day in jail.
“A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail,” Paul said in a separate statement just before news late last week about the indictment.
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.
In late March, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene indicated in a tweet that was “exculpatory evidence,” which proves that Bragg has no case. She also said he should now be indicted for improperly pursuing an investigation.
“Now it’s time to arrest Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for prosecutorial misconduct after hiding hundreds of pages of exculpatory evidence!” she wrote. “Bragg is on the verge of indicting an innocent former President and top Presidential candidate against the opposing ruling party. Bragg is breaking the law and trying to incite civil unrest with his Soros-funded political war. Hold him accountable!”
Now it’s time to arrest Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for prosecutorial misconduct after hiding hundreds of pages of exculpatory evidence!
Bragg is on the verge of indicting an innocent former President and top Presidential candidate against the opposing ruling party.
Bragg is…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 22, 2023
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.”