The Manhattan district attorney’s case against former President Donald Trump is a “legal disaster” that has far-reaching legal ramifications, according to his former lawyer Jenna Ellis.
“The case against Donald Trump is a legal disaster, a weaponizing [of] the justice system against a political opponent,” Ellis, a former attorney for Trump’s 2020 campaign, told The Epoch Times after a grand jury in New York voted to indict the former president.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating Trump in connection with an alleged hush money payment to adult performer Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, who is the frontrunner in the field of 2024 presidential hopefuls, has denied any wrongdoing, describing the March 30 indictment as “political persecution and election interference.”
Ellis expressed the same view.
“The only reason DA Alvin Bragg is bringing charges is because Trump is running for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination,” she said, noting that such efforts are likely to backfire.
“The DNC and RNC want a post-Trump America, yet they are incentivizing donors and the MAGA base to rally support against Trump because no one deserves to be politically prosecuted.”
She pointed to Trump’s top potential rival for the Republican nomination in 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came out to denounce the indictment as “un-American.” He also declared that he will not assist in any extradition of Trump, a Florida resident, “given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” referring to controversial billionaire financier George Soros.
A throng of prominent Republicans have come to Trump’s aide in the wake of the indictment and criticized the charges against him as politically motivated.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), like Ellis, said that Bragg has “irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election.”
“As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, he weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump,” he wrote, vowing that the House will “hold Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House GOP conference chair, released a statement saying the indictment was a “dark day for America.”
“The radical Far Left will stop at nothing to persecute Joe Biden’s chief political opponent ahead of the 2024 presidential election to suppress the will and voice of the American people,” she wrote
Democrats, in the meantime, hailed the news, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) saying that Trump is “subject to the same laws as every American.”
The swift response from DeSantis is rewarding politically, Ellis noted. With such a statement, she said, he is positioning himself as “a champion for the rule of law” and an “executive officer who will not allow political games.”
“Voters will love that display of strength and backbone,” she said.
Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina has told CNN that Trump, who is reported to be in Florida currently, will likely be arraigned early next week.
