{"id":1355,"date":"2023-06-15T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T20:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2023-08-12T16:40:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T20:40:19","slug":"republicans-rally-behind-trump-attacks-on-u-s-justice-system-intensify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1355","title":{"rendered":"Republicans rally behind Trump, attacks on U.S. justice system intensify"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Politics<\/a> Jun 15, 2023 12:00 PM EDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Moments after Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hoarded classified documents and then conspired to obstruct an investigation about it, the Republicans in Congress had his back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Kevin McCarthy dashed off a fundraising email decrying the \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against the former president and urging donors to sign up and \u201cstand with Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 5 takeaways from Trump\u2019s day in federal court<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell steered clear of criticizing the former president, refusing to engage in questions about the unprecedented indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And at a public meeting in the Capitol basement, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene compared the case against Trump to the federal prosecution of people at the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, suggesting in both instances it was the Justice Department, not the defendants, under scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mounting legal jeopardy Trump finds himself in has quickly become a political rallying cry for the Republicans, many of whom acknowledged they had not fully read the 49-page federal indictment but stood by the indicted former president, adopting his grievances against the federal justice system as their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an unparalleled example of how Trump has transformed the Republican Party that once embraced \u201claw and order\u201d but is now defending, justifying and explaining away the grave charges he faces with multiple counts of violating the Espionage Act by hoarding classified documents containing some of the country\u2019s most sensitive national security secrets<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Trump is rewriting the job description of what it means to lead a major American political party. Making another run for the White House, Trump is attacking the U.S. justice system that is foundational to democracy and emboldening Republican lawmakers to follow along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStand with Trump,\u201d tweeted Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the fourth-ranking House GOP leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will be standing right next to President Trump tonight in total support,\u201d tweeted Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama before he dashed to join the former president at his private Bedminster golf club for a campaign event after the federal court hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI stand by him right now,\u201d said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., outside the Capitol. \u201cTen toes down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite two impeachment trials, New York state charges of hush money payments to porn star<\/a>, a pair of probes into Trump\u2019s efforts to undo the 2020 election and now the federal case over his classified documents, Trump has shown an ability to not just withstand legal scrutiny but to thrive off it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Trump\u2019s defenders in Congress see it, he will rise politically, precisely because of all the investigations against him. Republicans in Congress are reframing the historic indictment of a former president as an unfair political persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been pretty clear on this all the way through: I think the country is very frustrated, when you don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s equal justice.\u201d McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis president hasn\u2019t even been out of office for four years, but you\u2019re holding him to a standard you\u2019ve never held anybody else to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida said the case smacks of a \u201ctwo-tier\u201d justice system, adding that constituents tell her they \u201cnever in a million years would have voted for Trump, but this is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA bogus investigation,\u201d said Donalds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolitical hit job,\u201d said Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, who said he did read the whole indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio said Trump is merely the \u201clatest victim\u201d of the Justice Department. He announced he would be blocking all DOJ nominees unless the attorney general changes course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden\u2019s political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt,\u201d Vance said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans also see the federal case against Trump as a winning political strategy to motivate aggrieved voters to the polls in 2024 elections, when the House and one-third of the Senate will be up for another term alongside the presidential nominees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Republicans rally around Trump after indictment over hush-money payments<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Republicans are fundraising off the indictment, and the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson, joined Trump on the plane from a campaign rally in Georgia to one in North Carolina where the congressman introduced the former president on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people are going to vote,\u201d Trump told the Bedminster crowd. \u201cThey know what we\u2019ve gone through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 37-count indictment, prosecutors alleged Trump knowingly stored highly sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and then schemed to provide false information to investigators who tried to retrieve the government papers. He could face a potentially lengthy prison sentence, if convicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Republicans acknowledge that Trump\u2019s hoarding of the documents \u2014 in dozens of boxes in the bathroom, on a ballroom stage and spilled in a storage room<\/a> \u2013 was problematic. Prosecutors said the papers included material about nuclear programs, defense and weapons capabilities, among others, some of the most secret information the U.S. government owns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump should have never stored the documents at his home, but suggested there was no real harm done since Trump didn\u2019t appear to give away the documents to China, Saudi Arabia or other countries. Rubio was more worried the indictment of Trump will \u201crelease a fury\u201d across a politically divided nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a few GOP voices in Congress dared to publicly raise serious questions about Trump\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real question is, why did he do it?\u201d said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the only Republican senator who voted twice to convict Trump in the impeachment trials. \u201cWhy should the country go through all this angst and turmoil when all he had to do is turn in the documents when asked?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said of what she\u2019s seen in the indictment, \u201cit looks pretty damning to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the same time Trump was pleading not guilty to the charges, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida was leading a panel discussion with Greene and others about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters trying to challenge and overturn Biden\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greene opened her remarks saying it was \u201cheavy on my heart that we\u2019re doing this today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She compared the two historic moments in U.S. history \u2014 \u201cwhen President Trump was being arraigned all because of the weaponized government that has been weaponized against each of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump had encouraged the mob to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and fight for his presidency as Congress was certifying the election won by Biden. Some 1,000 people have been charged by the Justice Department in the Capitol riot, including members of extremist groups convicted of sedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of those defendants were backing Trump\u2019s false claims of a stolen election. Five people died in the siege of the Capitol, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt who was shot and killed by Capitol Police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Election deniers turn their focus to state GOP posts after failing at polls<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greene and the others claim the prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters and Trump are evidence of a \u201cweaponization\u201d of the justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt all started on the day, on Jan. 6, when we were just doing our constitutional duty to object\u201d to Biden\u2019s election, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked afterward if they were trying to rewrite Jan. 6 history, Gaetz, a Trump ally, said: \u201cWe\u2019re trying to correct history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the Capitol at his weekly press conference, McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, declined to use his position to take sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questioned about Trump\u2019s indictment he said: \u201cI\u2019m not going to start commenting on the various candidates we have for president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left: U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. May 24, 2023. Jonathan Ernst\/Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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