Ron DeSantis reacted Wednesday to the looming indictment of his Republican rival, Donald Trump, by saying that prosecutors citing “opaque statutes” to make their case against him will result in “a lot of people” either not understanding or doubting the strength of their case, as opposed to if Trump were accused of doing “things that we know are traditional crimes,” like robbing a bank.
Appearing on Newsmax’s The Balance, the Florida governor and 2024 Republican candidate was asked by host Eric Bolling if the several felony indictments of Trump thus far are “politically motivated.”
Regarding Trump’s indictment in New York for falsifying business records, DeSantis claimed that “nobody would have been prosecuted under that in normal course of business,” and that the Manhattan District Attorney “wanted to go after” Trump.
As for Trump’s potential indictment over his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, DeSantis said he hopes there isn’t one. He then voiced skepticism over prosecutors’ efforts against the hundreds of rioters that have been convicted thus far.
“What they’ve been doing is they’ve been using this statute called obstruction of a proceeding, and they’ve kind of been stretching that to fit conduct that may or may not have happened on January 6,” he said.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith to Trump informing him that he’s a target of his investigation mentioned the crimes of defrauding the federal government via a conspiracy, obstructing an official proceeding, and “conspir[ing] to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” in the “free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege” afforded by the Constitution.
“I think if they do that, people are going to look at it and say, look: nobody’s above the law,” DeSantis continued. “If Donald Trump or any big political person gets caught robbing a bank or doing things that we know are traditional crimes that people get prosecuted for every day, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”
“But I think when you try to shove conduct into some of these more opaque statutes and you’re running with that given the politicization of the Garland Justice Department, you’re going to have a lot of people that are going to look at that and wince.”
