McCarthy says potential Trump indictment is ‘just political’
Jack Birle
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) continued to question the motivations of a potential indictment of former President Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
McCarthy, while at a retreat for House Republicans in Orlando, Florida, said the investigation and suspected indictment are politically motivated.
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“I think you know in your heart of hearts that this is just political,” McCarthy said to reporters.
The House speaker vowed over the weekend to investigate the Manhattan district attorney’s office after reports circulated that a grand jury was preparing to indict Trump on charges related to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump said on Saturday he expects to be arrested Tuesday, but did not say how he came to that conclusion.
“We’re not coming here to defend President Trump; we’re coming to defend equal justice,” McCarthy said to reporters.
McCarthy had previously diverged from Trump’s calls for his supporters to “protest, take our nation back” by saying people should not protest the prospect of an indictment.
“I don’t think people should protest this, no,” McCarthy said. “And I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn’t believe that, either.”
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Manhattan prosecutors have been investigating to see if Trump falsified business records to list a $130,000 reimbursement of his then-lawyer Michael Cohen for paying off Daniels as a legal expense.
Falsifying business records in that way is a misdemeanor in New York but it can be upped to a felony if the district attorney’s office argues the fraud was intended to conceal a second crime.