Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) suggested Friday that New York’s hush-money lawsuit against former President Donald Trump was brought solely because of Trump’s name and his bid for the White House.
“Frankly, the New York attorney general’s lawsuit should never have been filed,” Cuomo said Friday on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” “And if his name wasn’t Donald Trump and he wasn’t running for president … I’m a former attorney general of the state of New York. [and] I am saying that lawsuit should never have been filed.”
“It makes people uncomfortable and it should be, because if there’s anything left, it’s faith in the justice system,” he added.
Late last month, Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with making payments to an adult film star to silence him during the 2016 campaign over an alleged affair. Trump, who denies the affair, has said he will appeal.
The lawsuit was filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, who has repeatedly accused Trump and his allies of unfairly targeting him as the Republican prepares for a rematch with President Biden in November.
Trump’s guilty verdict was unanimous among all 12 jurors, but the former president’s supporters have sought to throw cold water on the legitimacy of the verdict, accusing the judge and jury selection process of being biased.
Cuomo was elected New York attorney general in 2007 and served as governor for 11 years. He resigned in 2021 amid an investigation into sexual harassment allegations and backlash over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo denies the allegations.
The former governor seemed to agree that the justice system has problems: He warned the Manhattan district attorney’s office not to politicize the justice system.
“When you talk about threats to our democracy, when the public believes that our justice system is being used to play politics and put people in jail or convict people for political reasons, then we have a real problem,” Gov. Cuomo said Friday.
According to The Hill/Decision Desk National Polling Index, President Trump currently holds a slim 0.6 percentage point lead over President Biden.
