House Speaker Mike Johnson and two former 2024 Republican presidential candidates on Tuesday supported former President Donald Trump in his “hush money” trial in Manhattan.
Johnson (R-Louisiana), the 45th president, has dismissed the “fraud” case surrounding a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. was seen standing behind Trump, 77, as he made the accusation.
“I have a lot of surrogates, and they speak very beautifully and they come from all over Washington,” Trump said of the Republicans standing behind him.
“And there are Democrats, too, who are very perplexed by what’s going on,” he added.
Mr. Johnson did not appear in court, but stepped outside to tear apart Mr. Cohen and prosecutors led by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg as the former fixer took the stand for a second day of testimony.
“I only heard a little bit of his testimony this morning,” he told reporters about Cohen, who accused Johnson of perjury in parliament. “No one should believe anything he says today.”
“They’re doing this on purpose to keep him here and away from campaigning,” Johnson said, adding that the “fake” incident “isn’t about justice, it’s all about politics.” He added that it would “become a cover” for the president. Biden.
“The president’s actions in this matter have been considered in advance and no charges have been filed. Why? Because there is no crime here,” he added. “It’s very corrupt.”
“What we have here is a partisan Democratic district attorney, we have a judge who is a Biden donor, we have a recently high-ranking Justice Department official, a high-ranking Biden Justice Department official, who recently Some assistant prosecutors received payments of more than $10,000 from the Democratic National Committee.
Mr. Johnson also dismissed charges against Mr. Trump for allegedly keeping classified documents after leaving office, and Mr. Johnson and the Republican Party chairman announced that special counsel Jack Smith, who indicted the former president in the case last June, would dismiss charges against Mr. Trump. “We are working to curb abuse,” he said.
The speaker survived an expulsion threat last week from far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), in part for failing to defund Smith’s prosecution, but the elected Republican He became the highest-ranking member of Congress to visit the Manhattan courthouse. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) appeared on Monday.
But Vance downplayed his stature, telling reporters outside court: “I came here today alone, because I’m one of hundreds of millions of people who are deeply concerned about this.” That’s because I’m a citizen who does this.”
Mr. Vance is one of several possible running mates for the Republican nomination in November, along with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who was among the former president’s allies on Tuesday.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a staunch Trump defender and former Republican presidential candidate, was also seen standing with Trump’s son Eric and daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump.
“There has never been anything like this in the history of our country. This is a fraud!” the former president declared. “This is an unprecedented level of election interference.”
