Republicans who see Trump conviction as politically motivated vow to ‘indict the left’
NEW YORK — In the days since Donald Trump was convicted of 34 crimes In his criminal hush-money trial, Republicans who see the case as politically motivated have united around a new rallying cry: Persecute the left.
Candidates, office holders and members of the former president’s family have done so amplified Trump’s calls for retaliation against political enemies and urged their fellow Republicans to accuse Democrats of crimes.
“Time for Red State AGs and DAs to get to work,” Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia wrote on the social platform X, formerly Twitter, after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty.
Influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk urged Republican prosecutors to be “creative” in filing charges: “Defy the left, or lose America,” he said on X.
In a podcast interview, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said: “We have to fight fire with fire.”
The calls to weaponize the justice system against Democrats are a lot more intense than some of the other suggestions for retaliation Republicans have made since the guilty verdict, such as calls to investigate the prosecutors in the Manhattan case or for voters to make their own judgments Trump returned to the White House in November.
They represent a show of loyalty to Trump, who for months has called the cases against him a form of partisan “election interference” and has called President Joe Biden’s administration “evil” and “corrupt.” They also indicate a growing sense among some Republicans that the felony conviction of a former president for falsifying corporate records to illegally influence elections crossed a line in legal standards.
“What just happened today is a line we cannot break,” conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly said after Trump was found guilty. “And these Democrats will rue the day they decided to use ‘lawfare’ to stop a presidential candidate. I’m not talking about violence. I’m talking tit-for-tat.”
In a post on must wake up to the new reality and respond accordingly.”
The outrage comes as Trump and other Republicans have claimed without evidence that Biden and his administration pulled the strings of the New York trial. The case was led by a state-level prosecutor, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Biden addressed Trump’s attacks on the justice system during a fundraiser Monday night in Connecticut, calling them “dangerous to American democracy,” noting that the former president had been convicted in a state case rather than a federal case. Attorney General Merrick Garland criticized the idea that the federal government was involved as a conspiracy theory during a performance Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee and called it an attack on the judicial process.
“We have no control over the Manhattan district attorney,” Garland said Tuesday. “The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office does not report to us. The Manhattan district attorney makes his own decisions on cases he wants to bring under his state law.”
Republicans have pointed to real elements of the case to argue it was politically driven. First, Bragg, a Democrat, campaigned for office in 2021 in part because of his qualifications to take over the agency’s investigation into Trump. The judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, gave $15 to Biden in 2020 and has a daughter who works in Democratic politics, though he says neither has affected his ability to be impartial. And Attorney General Matthew Colangelo joined Bragg’s office after serving in the Biden administration’s Justice Department.
Trump has also criticized Bragg for bringing it the case in 2023, when his alleged crime was linked to a campaign seven years earlier. Bragg has defended his timing, saying he brings cases “when they are ready.”
Democrats in Congress condemned Republican calls to use the legal system to attack Democrats as “reckless” and potentially dangerous to democracy. They said in interviews that such a response was unnecessary because Trump received a fair trial by jury and has the right to appeal.
“A jury of 12 unanimously found that he committed 34 crimes beyond a reasonable doubt,” said North Carolina Democratic Rep. Deborah Ross, deputy member of the House Judiciary Committee. “That is very different from making misleading accusations and letting members of Congress frivolously dictate who should be charged.”
Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey, another Democrat on the committee, said there is a history of Republicans prosecuting Democrats and vice versa, but he is “relatively confident that these cases will be resolved by jurors who come to the jury and take their jobs seriously.” to take. and try to follow the evidence and the law.”
As Trump awaits sentencing next month, prominent Democrats are also facing high-profile charges. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey does currently on trial on federal bribery charges in New York, while Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted last month on charges of conspiracy and bribery.
Opening statements began Tuesday in a federal case against President Biden’s son Hunterwho was charged in Delaware with three felonies stemming from the purchase of a firearm in 2018 when, according to his memoir, he was in the throes of a crack addiction.
Trump has given varying signals in the past about whether he believes prosecuting political enemies is appropriate.
In a campaign video last August, he called on Republican attorneys general and district attorneys to follow the trials against him “closely”: “It’s either an eye for an eye, or it’s a case of fighting fire with fire.” But at one City Hall in February he responded to concerns that his second term would be focused on settling old scores, saying: “My revenge will be a success.”
When asked if he would take revenge on the morning show ‘Fox & Friends” on Sunday, Trump struggled to answer, calling it “a very difficult question” because “these are bad people.” He said that when he was president, he could have jailed former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but declined to do so.
“Then this happened to me,” he said, “and so maybe I think differently.”
___
Associated Press writer Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to improve its explanatory reporting on elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.