Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (Democrat) recently said that the lawsuit filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against former President Donald Trump is politically motivated. The Hill report.
Last year, Bragg charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, alleging that the former president tried to conceal so-called hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who alleged the pair had had an affair. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied Daniels’ allegations. In May, a jury made up of Manhattan residents found Trump guilty of all charges.
“You want to talk about threats to democracy.”
Appearing on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday, the disgraced former governor said, “If his name wasn’t Donald Trump and he wasn’t running for president … I’m the former attorney general of the state of New York. [and] I am saying that lawsuit should never have been filed.”
“That makes people uncomfortable, and rightly so, because if there’s anything left, it’s faith in our justice system,” Cuomo said.
“When you talk about threats to democracy, if the public believes that the justice system is being used to play politics and put people in jail or convict people for political reasons, then there’s a real problem,” he added.
Mr Trump’s legal team plans to appeal, and his lawyer Todd Blanche said a guilty verdict was expected.
“I didn’t think I would be treated fairly in Manhattan, and I wasn’t,” she said.
Bragg’s prosecution team recently requested an extension of the gag order against Trump, citing 61 alleged threats made by others against Bragg, his family and employees.
The new complaint, signed by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo, says there is nothing to stop Trump from “extensively criticizing the verdict, the criminal process, the District Attorney, or this Court. Indeed, Defendant made numerous such criticisms both during his trial and after his conviction.”
Prosecutors accused Bragg and his team of making “completely false accusations” against Trump, including that they were “attempting to limit the defendant’s comments during the presidential debates.” The complaint states that Trump’s claims are “without any basis in fact” and are “lies.” NBC News report.
“These deliberate falsehoods are only the latest example of the Defendants’ flagrant disregard for the rule of law and the fair administration of justice,” Bragg’s team wrote. “As the Defendants’ continuing conduct makes clear, the need to protect the participants in this criminal proceeding and the integrity of the criminal justice process from the Defendants’ attacks remains crucial.”
Colangelo held senior roles at the Biden administration’s Justice Department before joining Bragg’s office in December 2022, when he was effectively demoted.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland a few months ago saying Colangelo’s appointment to Bragg’s office “creates the impression that the Department of Justice is assisting district attorneys in their ‘political prosecution’ of Mr. Trump.”
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