06-09-2023, 11:28 AM
Quote:Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, says: “I don’t think he’s an overreaching prosecutor. He’s very rigorous and vigorous and independent and that’s what you want here and that’s what’s needed. I don’t think Merrick Garland had anything to do with it except appointing him.” But what of the Republican party? Did it solemnly accept news of the indictment and call on Americans to allow justice to take its course? Did the Trump fever finally break, with party leaders denouncing the old demagogue and ushering in a new era? It did not. “It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him,” tweeted Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House of Representatives. “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice.” Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and chief rival to Trump in the Republican presidential primary election, wrote on Twitter: “The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society …. Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter?” Senator JD Vance of Ohio described it as a “sham indictment”, senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee compared the US to a “banana republic” and senator Josh Hawley of Missouri told Fox News “if the president in power can just jail his political opponents, which is what Joe Biden is trying to do tonight, we don’t have a republic any more.”Could Trump go to jail? Federal charges over classified docs show momentum is building | Donald Trump | The Guardian