Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s choice to prosecute former President Trump was “political malice.”
The Utah Republican released a statement Saturday morning, days after former President Trump’s guilty verdict, criticizing both Bragg and Democrats for the outcome of the case.
“Mr. Bragg should have settled his lawsuit against Mr. Trump through the normal process, but he made a political decision,” Romney told Atlantic reporter and biographer MacKay Coppins, in a statement his office confirmed to Fox News Digital.
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Mitt Romney called Alvin Bragg’s indictment against Trump an “act of political malice.” (Getty Images)
“Bragg may have won the battle for now, but he may have lost the political war,” he warned. “Democrats think they can put out Trump’s fire with oxygen. This is a political blunder.”
Trump was convicted by a New York jury on Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress who claimed to have had an affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York, Friday, May 31, 2024. The day after a New York jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony charges, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee spoke out about the conviction, seemingly trying to shed new light on his campaign. (AP Photo/Julia Nickinson) (AP Photo/Julia Nickinson)
In the latter part of his term, Romney has often aligned himself with more moderate senators, such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), making his reaction to the ruling less predictable than that of other Republican senators, many of whom are close allies of Trump.
In a statement after the verdict, Collins also condemned the “political context of this case.”
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Senator Lisa Murkowski released a statement on Friday reacting to the conviction of President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
But in her response, Murkowski avoided commenting on the legitimacy of the lawsuit or the ruling. Instead, the Alaska Republican lamented the drama and legal “burden” that distracts voters from President Biden’s missteps.
Right-wing members of the Republican Conference reacted more strongly to the guilty verdict.
On Friday, several senators, led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), signed a letter to the White House vowing to make the upcoming legislative process as difficult as possible for Democrats.
“As the Senate Republican Conference, we will not aid and abet the White House’s plan to divide our country,” the letter said.
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Republican senators, led by Sen. Mike Lee, said they would not allow the Senate to function and accomplish Democratic priorities after former President Trump was convicted. (Getty Images)
Trump has vowed to appeal the ruling.
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Romney has previously suggested that President Biden made a mistake by not pardoning his political rival, Trump. “Some people may disagree with this, but if I were President Biden, I would have pardoned him immediately when the Department of Justice handed down the indictment,” Romney said in an interview with MSNBC in mid-May.
“I would have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, it’s because I, President Biden, would be the big man and the person I pardon would be the small man,” the senator added.
