Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., spoke out Saturday against a potential indictment against former President Donald Trump from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, urging the 2024 GOP presidential nominee to fight back and “take this all the way to to the goddamned Supreme Court.” .”
“The New York District Attorney has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any person in America today,” Graham said, speaking from Charleston, South Carolina, at the Palmetto Family Council’s Vision ’24 Forum, a prominent conservative Christian event. .
In New York City, “You’re lucky if you don’t get robbed on the way to where you’re going. Is this really the most important thing happening in Manhattan?” Graham wondered. “I think this is an ongoing, never-ending effort to destroy Donald Trump, everything around Donald Trump.”
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Graham also questioned the legal reasoning behind the potential charges, citing a New York Times report that said the possible allegations rested on an “untested and therefore risky legal theory”.
GOP South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, right, spoke on Saturday about the possible indictment of former President Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, left. (Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images, AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
“They’re making up things they’ve never used against anyone because they hate Trump. That’s what this is. They’re brewing a legal cocktail to try and come up with some crazy theory,” Graham said. “The law hasn’t been used by anyone in New York just because they hate Trump. Do you know why they’re doing this? Because they’re afraid of Trump. That’s why they’re doing it.”
Graham referred to Trump’s targeting as “selective prosecution” and said if he were Trump he would “take this all the way to the goddamn Supreme Court”.
The comments from Graham, who has supported Trump in the 2024 presidential race, follow reports that the Manhattan district attorney’s office may be preparing to file suit over alleged hush money payments made by Trump in 2016 as a presidential candidate.
A court source told Fox News Digital that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office will meet with law enforcement to “discuss logistics next week, which would mean they expect an indictment next week.”
The possible charges would likely stem from years of investigation into Trump’s alleged hush money scandal involving porn actress Stormy Daniels. Near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, sent Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from revealing her 2006 affair with Trump. Trump paid Cohen back in installments.
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Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., right, speaks at the Vision ’24 conference March 18, 2023 in North Charleston, SC, as Tony Beam, Chairman of the Palmetto Family Board, looks on. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
Like Graham, other Republican lawmakers also oppose the potential indictment against Trump, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who said Saturday he leads House committees to investigate whether federal funds are being used for “politically motivated prosecutions” such as Trump’s.
“Here we go again – an outrageous abuse of power by a radical district attorney who lets violent criminals go free while pursuing political revenge against President Trump,” McCarthy wrote in a tweet.
Bragg has been criticized for slashing half of all crimes in Manhattan last year, including armed robberies against commercial businesses, and for other progressive crime policies.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, RN.Y., said Bragg “allows violent criminals to roam the streets but abuses the rule of law and the powers of his office to attack political opponents in partisan witch hunts. He is unfit for office.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, reached for comment Friday, would not “confirm or comment on” the impending indictment.
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South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham speaks as former President Donald Trump, left, and Henry McMaster, South Carolina Governor, listen at a campaign event in Columbia, South Carolina, on Jan. 28, 2023. (Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump lashed out at the reports, saying they indicate he would be arrested on his Truth Social app Saturday morning next week, telling his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK.”
“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT LAW FIRM, WHICH HAS SET NEW RECORDS IN VIOLENT CRIMS & WHOSE LEADER IS FINANCED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITHOUT CRIME, CAN BE PROVED, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULL DISCOVERY (BY COUNTLESS OTHER Attorneys!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,” Trump wrote.
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Amid a possible indictment, Trump plans to travel to Waco, Texas next weekend for what will be the first major rally of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Adam Shaw, Marta Dhanis, Adam Sabes and Brandon Gillespie of Fox News contributed to this report.
