A lot of people have come to the defense of former President Donald Trump, railing against the indictment handed down by a grand jury in Manhattan on Tuesday that charges him with 34 felonies.
There was one person who came to his side to defend him from the phony indictment that was somewhat of a surprise, though: Former Republican Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
The son of former President George H.W. Bush and the brother of former President George W. Bush, Jeb was once a heated rival of Trump’s. The two were the leading candidates in the Republican primary back in 2016, and neither had kind words to say about the other.
The Bush family in general also hasn’t been on Trump’s side for many things – both before, during and after his presidency.
Yet, Jeb Bush came to Trump’s defense over the weekend, saying the decision by a grand jury in Manhattan to hand down a 34-count indictment while Trump is running for president was “very political” and “not a matter of justice.”
In a tweet sent on Saturday, Bush wrote:
“[Manhattan District Attorney Alvin] Bragg’s predecessor didn’t take up the case. The Justice Department didn’t take up the case. Bragg first said he would not take up the case. This is very political, not a matter of justice. In this case, let the jury be the voters.”
Bragg’s office has been leading an investigation into Trump for a few years now. It revolves around hush money payments Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
The Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York both conducted investigations into these payments after they were first revealed by Fox News back in 2018.
Federal prosecutors decided not to go after Trump then, even as after Cohen took a plea deal of his own and implicated Trump.
Bush isn’t the only Republican who has come to Trump’s defense since the indictment was first announced late last week. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent a tweet of his own last Thursday that read:
“As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, he weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump. The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”
Steve Scalise, the majority leader in the House, also sent a tweet on Thursday, writing:
“[The] sham New York indictment of President Donald Trump is one of the clearest examples of extremist Democrats weaponizing government to attack their political opponents. Outrageous.”
Trump turned himself in on the charges on Tuesday, where he was arraigned in front of a Manhattan judge. He was released on his own recognizance after and returned back home to Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where he gave a fiery speech of his own railing against the charges.
