Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) celebrated Father’s Day by expressing his thoughts on wanting the Supreme Court to intervene in former President Donald Trump’s hush money guilty verdict.
Donalds sat in virtually for an episode of NBC’s “Meet the Press” to discuss the “weaponization of the justice system” and called for the high court to hear an accelerated appeal of Trump’s conviction. When interviewer Peter Alexander asked the conservative congressman if he would accept the verdict if it were overturned on appeal, Donalds argued the whole case had political purposes behind it. “This is being done for political purposes. Everybody knows how the court system works in New York,” he stated.
“The
only ability for this to be overturned is going to happen two or three years from now; we all know this. That’s why what happened in lower Manhattan was to interfere with an election. Which is why Speaker Johnson, myself included, and many Americans believe the Supreme Court should step into this matter.”On May 30, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents in correlation to covering up hush money payments illegally made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to hide an alleged affair before the 2016 election. He has appealed the conviction with the support of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who resonated with Donalds’ sentiments and called on the high court to step in.
Before pleading with the Supreme Court, Donalds attacked the justice system for supporting the attack of political leaders from opposite sides of the aisle. According to him, there’s a “gentleman’s agreement” that politicians shouldn’t do that. He went back to 2016 and pointed out that Trump never went after former New York Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. “We have always had this kind of gentleman’s agreement that you do not go after the political leaders of the opposition party,” Donalds said.
“When Donald Trump was president, he didn’t have his attorney generals go after Hillary Clinton. You have Jack Smith, who’s chasing down Donald Trump on violating the Espionage Act, but at the same time, Robert Hur knows that President Biden has violated the Espionage Act.”
The GOP potential vice presidential nominee is one of several conservative lawmakers who believe all levers of power should be used in efforts to overturn the former president’s conviction. According to Axios, some are pushing legislation that would allow the former president, if elected, to move his case from state to federal court. Other legislators proposed cutting federal funding for state and federal prosecutors who have cases against him.
In the meantime, Donalds continues to be one of the faces of Team Trump 2024. While in Detroit on June 15, Trump confirmed that the 45-year-old lawmaker is “very high” on
his list of potential vice presidents. Donalds touched on that during the interview, saying he is prepared on day one to serve as commander-in-chief if need be. “I’m actually pretty intelligent. I can sift through issues really, really well,” he said.“It’s about judgment. It’s about logic streams. It’s about how you make decisions at the end of the day.”
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