Andrew Cuomo calls NY case against Trump politically motivated: ‘Playing politics with the justice system’
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) recently stated that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump was politically motivated, The Hill reported.
Last year, Bragg filed 34 felony counts of falsifying business records against Trump, arguing that the former president had tried to conceal a so-called hush-money payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claimed the two had an affair. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied Daniels’ allegations. In May, a jury of Manhattan residents found Trump guilty on all counts.
‘You want to talk about a threat to democracy.’
During a Friday appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the disgraced former governor said, “If his name was not Donald Trump and if he wasn’t running for president … I’m the former AG of in New York, [and] I’m telling you that case would’ve never been brought.”
“That’s what is offensive to people, and it should be because if there’s anything left, it’s belief in the justice system,” Cuomo remarked.
“And you want to talk about a threat to democracy: When you have this country believing you’re playing politics with the justice system and you’re trying to put people in jail or convict them for political reasons, then we have a real problem,” he added.
Trump’s legal team plans to file an appeal. His attorney Todd Blanche explained that they had expected the guilty verdict.
“We didn’t think we were gonna get a fair shake in Manhattan, and we didn’t,” Blanche stated.
Bragg’s prosecution team recently requested to have the gag order against Trump extended, citing 61 alleged threats made by others against Bragg, his family, or employees.
The new filing, signed by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo, stated that nothing stops Trump from “broadly criticizing the verdict, the criminal proceeding, the District Attorney, this court and more — and indeed, defendant has engaged in a flood of such criticisms both during the trial and after the guilty verdict.”
Prosecutors accused Trump of making “categorically false accusations,” including that Bragg and his team are attempting to “restrict the defendant’s speech at an upcoming presidential debate.” The filing stated that Trump’s claim has “no factual basis” and is “a lie,” NBC News reported.
“These knowing falsehoods are just the latest examples of defendant’s patent disrespect for the rule of law and the impartial administration of justice,” Bragg’s team wrote. “As defendant’s continued conduct makes clear, the need to protect participants in this criminal proceeding and the integrity of the criminal justice process from defendant’s attacks remains critically important.”
Colangelo previously held a senior role at the Biden administration’s Department of Justice before he effectively took a demotion to join Bragg’s office in December 2022.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland a couple of months ago stating that Colangelo’s appointment to Bragg’s office has “given the perception that the Justice Department is assisting in” the DA’s “politicized prosecution” of Trump.
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