by Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., spoke out Saturday against a possible indictment of former President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, urging the 2024 GOP presidential candidate to fight back and “take this all the way to the damn Supreme Court.”
“The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America today,” said Graham, speaking from Charleston, South Carolina, at the Palmetto Family Council’s Vision ’24 Forum, a prominent conservative Christian event. .
In New York City, “you’re lucky if you don’t get mugged on the way to where you’re going. Is this really the most important thing that happens in Manhattan?” Graham asked. “I think this is an ongoing, never-ending effort to destroy Donald Trump, everything about Donald Trump.”
MCCARTHY DIRECTS COMMITTEES TO INVESTIGATE FEDERAL FUNDS WERE USED IN POTENTIAL TRUMP IMPeachment
Graham also questioned the legal reasoning behind the potential indictment, citing a New York Times report that said the possible charges rest on an “untested and therefore risky legal theory.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, right, spoke Saturday about the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, left. (Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images, AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
“They’re making things that they’ve never used against anybody because they hate Trump. That’s what this is. They’re brewing a legal cocktail, to try to come up with some bizarre theory,” Graham said. “The law never used by anybody in New York, just because they hate Trump. You know why they do this? Because they’re afraid of Trump. That’s why they do it.”
Graham referred to the targeting of Trump as “selective prosecution” and said that if he were Trump, he would “take this all the way to the damn Supreme Court.”
The comments by Graham, who has endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential race, follow reports that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office may be preparing to issue an indictment over alleged welfare payments Trump made as a 2016 presidential candidate.
A legal source told Fox News Digital Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office will meet with police to “discuss logistics some time next week, which would mean they expect an indictment next week.”
The potential indictment is likely to stem from the year-long investigation into Trump’s alleged hush money scandal involving porn actresses Stormy Daniels. Toward the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen sent Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from disclosing her 2006 affair with Trump. Trump reimbursed Cohen through installments.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., right, speaks at the Vision ’24 conference on March 18, 2023 in North Charleston, SC, as Palmetto Family Chairman Tony Beam looks on. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
Like Graham, other Republican lawmakers are also pushing back against the possible Trump indictment, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who said Saturday he is instructing House committees to investigate whether federal funds are being used for “politically motivated prosecutions” such as .ex. that to Trump.
“Here we go again – an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals go as he pursues political revenge against President Trump,” McCarthy wrote in a tweet.
Bragg has been criticized for downgrading half of all felony charges in Manhattan last year, including armed robberies of commercial businesses, and for other progressive crime policies.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, RN.Y., said Bragg “allows violent criminals to walk the streets, but abuses the rule of law and the power of his office to target political opponents in partisan witch hunts. He is unfit for office.”
Come for comment FridayThe Manhattan District Attorney’s office would neither “confirm nor comment” on the pending indictment.
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South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks as former President Donald Trump, left, and Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, listen during a campaign event in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 28, 2023. (Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump lashed out at the reports, saying they indicate he would be arrested next week on his Truth Social app Saturday morning, telling his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION.”
“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT AND HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY, WHO HAS ALLOWED NEW PRINCIPALS IN VIOLENCE AND WHOSE LEADER IS FINANCED BY GEORGE SORASE, DOESN’T PROVIDE AN OLD AND COMPLETELY DISCONTINUED (OF NUMEROUS OTHER ALLEGATIONS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR AND AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY NEXT WEEK!” Trump next week! wrote.
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Amid a possible indictment, Trump plans to travel to Waco, Texas, next weekend for what will be the first major rally of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Marta Dhanis, Adam Sabes and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
