President Donald Trump was flanked by top Republican Party figures as he attended his “hush money” trial in New York on Tuesday.
Several allies of the 45 president, including Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and former 2024 presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, slammed the ongoing NY v. Trump trial as a “sham.”
They highlighted that the case is being promoted by Democrats ahead of the 2024 election.
“I learned a lot from being in there in person,” Ramaswamy said Tuesday outside the New York courthouse.
“It is one of the most depressing places I have been in my life.
“But it is fitting because the only thing more depressing than the environment of that courtroom is what’s actually happening in there.
“It’s straight out of a Kafka novel.
“The prosecution’s main strategy appears to be to bore the jurors into submission.
“And if you look in that direction, sadly, it may appear to actually be working.”
Ramaswamy that the case is “politicized persecution.”
“The whole case that Alvin Bragg has brought depends on one premise for them to charge this as a felony, is that Donald Trump somehow should have used campaign funds to make an allegedly personal payment,” Ramaswamy continued.
“Yet if he had done that, their case against him would be even stronger.
“This is garbage.… It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
“This is a sham. This is not the United States of America.
“This is some third-rate banana republic.”
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Ramaswamy, Donalds, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) all joined Trump in court on Tuesday.
In a statement, a Trump campaign official confirmed that the supporters all volunteered to join Trump in court to support their friend, and were not invited by the campaign.
“There’s nothing that has been wrong here,” Donalds said during the press conference.
“Nothing that has been done poorly by President Trump.
“The only thing that’s being done wrong is by this judge.
“His daughter is making money, raising money for Democrats, and all of the fundraising emails, and all the fundraising things are about this trial that his daughter is using.
“He won’t recuse himself. This is a travesty of justice.
“This is a misuse of the justice system.”
Trump’s legal team had previously demanded presiding Judge Juan Merchan’s recusal from the case.
they cited that Merchan’s daughter works as a Democrat consultant and fundraises for high-profile Democrat Party elites, including the Biden-Harris campaign.
Mills slammed the trial as “the weaponization of what was the Department of Justice.”
Burgum called the case “election interference” that is “tying up the president for being out on the campaign trail.”
The allies joining Trump Tuesday follow fellow supporters such as Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) who attended Trump’s trial on Monday.
Trump is in court for his 17th day of the trial on Tuesday.
The case focuses on Michael Cohen paying former pornographic performer Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged 2006 extramarital affair with the then-real estate tycoon.
Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.
Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses.
The prosecution is working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case and has maintained his innocence.
The prosecution has yet to provide any evidence to support the allegations against Trump.
This week began with testimony from Cohen, who is considered the prosecution’s star witness in the case.
The former Trump attorney detailed to the court that he spent his own funds to pay Daniels $130,000 in order to execute a non-disclosure agreement and obtain rights to her claims of an affair.
In October 2016, according to Cohen’s testimony, he told Trump that Daniels must be paid in order to quiet her claims ahead of Election Day the following month.
Cohen’s testimony also included how he secretly recorded Trump in 2016 regarding another payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
McDougal also claimed she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which the 45th president has repeatedly denied.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker purchased exclusive rights to her story to bury the claims ahead of the 2016 election, according to trial testimony.
The prosecution played Cohen’s secret recording to the court but the out-of-context short audio clip failed to provide any evidence to the court.
The recording appeared to serve as a prob to line Cohen up to make salacious allegations against Trump.
Cohen’s testimony comes after Daniels took the stand last week.
She told her story to the court despite it not being relevant to the case.
Daniels’ testimony also included describing to the court how she got into the pornography business after working as an exotic dancer as a teenager.
Legal experts subsequently sounded off that Daniels’ testimony was irrelevant to the case and that it should not have been admitted into the record.
Trump’s legal team twice moved for a mistrial but was denied.
Burgum added during the Tuesday press conference that while the trial continues, allies of Trump’s will continue campaigning for the 45th president as Americans deal with spiraling inflation under Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration.
“We’re all here today because of the circus of this trial,” Burgum said in closing remarks.
“But I want to say a word to those Americans out there that are dealing with Biden’s inflation.
“And when their paychecks aren’t helping them get through the end of the month because they’re paying more for their gas and their food.
“They’re paying more for their electricity.
“I want them to know that while this trial is going on, there’s many of us around the country that are out helping campaign for President Trump to make sure that the message gets through.”
READ MORE – Jonathan Turley: Alvin Bragg’s Anti-Trump ‘Hush Money’ Case Is ‘Falling Apart’
