ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, in an interview on Sunday, confronted former President Trump’s lawyer, Will Scharf, over the former president’s baseless claim that President Biden played a role in filing a hush-money criminal lawsuit against Trump in New York.
In an interview with “This Week,” Schaer repeated the former president’s arguments, claiming that the criminal trial over hush money – which resulted in Trump being convicted of 34 felony counts – was “Exhibit A” of the “politicization of the justice system.”
“This is completely unprecedented in American history. This is not how our election campaigns are supposed to work. In this country, we fight elections at the ballot box, not in the courts,” Schaaf continued.
Stephanopoulos acknowledged Schaaf’s claim that the election would be won at the ballot box, but made it clear there was no evidence that the Department of Justice was involved in the just-concluded New York criminal trial.
“That’s true. But, of course, no former president or presidential candidate has ever faced the kind of charges that the president faced because of his own conduct. And, of course, the Manhattan attorney general has no affiliation to the Department of Justice,” Stephanopoulos said.
When Stephanopoulos tried to return to questions about the sentencing process, Schaaf refused to accept Stephanopoulos’s claim that the prosecution was politically motivated and pressed on, eventually cutting him off.
“I firmly disagree with the notion that the New York district attorney was not politically motivated,” Schaaf said, “and I also firmly disagree with the notion that President Biden and his political allies were not deeply involved in this prosecution.”
Stephanopoulos interjected, “There’s just no evidence of that. … I won’t let you say that any more. There’s just no evidence of that.”
“Do you want to answer any questions about the sentencing process?” Stephanopoulos added after some back and forth.
“Pointing to the prosecutor in the case, Matthew Colangelo, Schaaf said: [District Attorney] At the end of the interview, he noted that Alvin Bragg had previously worked at the Department of Justice, and cited his punch to Bragg’s shoulder as he announced the verdict as evidence of political interference.
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