The Georgia indictment against Donald Trump prompted another round of reaction from members of Congress, who recycled rhetoric and repeated slogans for the fourth criminal case against the former president as he makes a comeback bid for the White House.
Congressional Democrats for previous indictments had stressed that the criminal justice process should play out without outside interference, and echoed a familiar mantra that no person is “above the law.”
“I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a fourth time: No one is above the law,” House Minority Whip Katherine M. Clark, D-Mass., posted Tuesday on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. “Donald Trump’s Big Lie was an attempt to erase the votes and will of the people — the core of our democracy.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., mentioned it as well in a joint statement on the Georgia indictment.
“The actions taken by the Fulton County District Attorney, along with other state and federal prosecutors, reaffirms the shared belief that in America no one, not even the president, is above the law,” the duo said.
Similar to previous Trump indictment news, conservative lawmakers in Congress rushed to defend the 77-year-old Trump, slamming the indictment as a “sham,” attacking the prosecutor and casting the investigation as a partisan “witch hunt” that seeks to undermine Trump’s presidential campaign.
“Another week, another sham indictment,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said. “This time it’s a radical prosecutor in Fulton County who wants nothing more than to stop President Trump from participating in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
The indictment, which accuses Trump and his allies of trying to overturn the election result in a top 2020 battleground state, spurred claims from some conservatives that prosecutors are abusing their power to target Trump.
“Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., posted on X. “Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career. Americans see through this desperate sham.”
That was largely the response McCarthy had in past Trump indictments. After Trump’s indictment on New York state charges, McCarthy called that case “weaponization of the federal justice process.” After the first federal criminal indictment in Florida, McCarthy said House Republicans “will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, went with a phrase of “nothing wrong” while defending Trump on the Georgia indictment.
“Today’s indictment is just the latest political attack in the Democrats’ WITCH HUNT against President Trump,” Jordan posted on X. “He did nothing wrong!”
After the Trump indictment in Washington, Jordan posted: “When you drain The Swamp, The Swamp fights back. President Trump did nothing wrong!”
This time around, it’s a sweeping 41-count indictment from a Georgia grand jury that accuses Trump and 18 others of operating as a “criminal organization” as they sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
The Georgia case, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, focuses on the former president’s efforts to overturn election results in Georgia, with the indictment centered on the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, known as RICO.
It alleges that Trump and a cohort of allies, including his White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, operated as an organization that engaged in “various related criminal activities.”
Some Republican lawmakers, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appear to be remaining quiet on the latest indictment against Trump. McConnell’s office had not issued a press release on the topic as of midday Tuesday.
The post Newest Trump indictment leaves lawmakers repeating themselves appeared first on Roll Call.
