Speaker Mike Johnson backs Donald Trump, says the ‘sham’ trial is to keep him ‘off of the campaign’
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: Speaker Mike Johnson made a strong statement against the ongoing hush money trial of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, May 14.
Johnson, the highest-ranking lawmaker to visit Trump in New York "to call out what is a travesty of justice," labeled the case as “election interference," to keep him off the campaign trail amid his race against President Joe Biden.
Mike Johnson says Donald Trump is 'innocent' of all charges
The Speaker’s show of support came less than a week after the House blocked an effort, led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to oust him from the top job over foreign bills.
“This is the fifth week that President Trump has been in court for this sham of a trial. They are doing this intentionally to keep him here and keep him off of the campaign trail,” Johnson said as per The Hill.
Johnson also believes that the prosecutors are trying to keep Trump away from his race against President Biden. “President Trump is innocent of these charges."
He said he came on his own to show support to his "friend" on Tuesday as he was "deeply concerned" about the case. “And I think everybody in the country can see that for what it is.”
GOP allies condemn Donald Trump's hush money trial
Republican Party lawmakers rallied on Tuesday, May 14, for Trump, as he remains in the Manhattan courtroom for the duration of the trial.
Florida Representatives Byron Donalds and Cory Mills were also seen alongside Trump at the courthouse.
Other high-ranking lawmakers such as Senator JD Vance, Senator Tommy Tuberville, and Representative Nicole Malliotakis have also traveled to New York to support Trump.
Rep Donalds called the trial a “joke,” and said “there is no crime," according to CNN. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum called the proceedings a “scam trial” and “election interference.”
Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy who also showed up at the court said, the court is “one of the most depressing places I have been in my life,” saying it is “straight out of a Kafka novel.”
He added, “The prosecutors' main strategy is to bore the jurors into submission,” he added.
Mike Johnson slams Michael Cohen and Donald Trump's gag order
Johnson’s appearance coincided with the prosecution’s star witness, Trump’s ex-"fixer" Michael Cohen, who took the stand for the second day on Tuesday, May 14.
Johnson, like his Republican colleagues, took aim at Cohen and tried to undermine his credibility as a witness.
“This is a man who is clearly on a mission for personal revenge and who is widely known as a witness who has trouble with the truth.” he said.
He also slammed him for his "history of perjury" for which he is known, saying, "No one should believe a word he says today."
Trump is also under a gag order that bars him from criticizing the witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff, or the judge’s family.
Johnson labeled the gag order as “ridiculous and unprecedented,” arguing it overrides Trump’s “constitutional right to defend himself from political smears from his harshest critics at the most important time.”
Notably, an appeals court in New York on Tuesday denied Trump's appeal to lift the gag order.
Mike Johnson calls the hush money trial a 'years-long partisan witch hunt'
Speaker Johnson also took aim at the other legal cases involving Trump, including the federal investigation into the former president’s retention of classified documents.
“This is a … years-long partisan witch hunt. Years long,” Johnson said of the hush money trial. “And it’s been going on for quite some time."
He said the same thing is with the classified documents case calling it "so egregious" that it had to be postponed indefinitely. "The American people are not going to let this stand," Johnson said.
"Election Day cannot get here soon enough. And we will continue to shine a light on all of this in Congress, because we have that constitutional responsibility," he concluded.
