Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has slammed the New York City prosecutor in charge of a possible criminal indictment against Donald Trump, while also slamming the former president with an apparent dig about the “porn star hush money” at the heart of the case.
DeSantis, Trump’s main rival for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024, has been under pressure to comment on the New York case since Trump said over the weekend that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday. When asked about the possible indictment by a reporter on Monday, he finally spoke up, claiming that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was one of the US prosecutors who were using their positions to pursue a leftist political agenda after being elected with campaign funding from billionaire George Soros.
“These Soros district attorneys are a menace to society, and I’m just glad I’m the only governor in the country who’s actually removed one from office during my tenure,” DeSantis said, referring to his firing of a prosecutor in Tampa, Florida, in January. He went on to say that DAs backed by Soros “weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety.”
“I’m not sure what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair…” but claims Alvin Bragg is a Soros-backed DA out for political gain.
“But what I can say is that if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes that happen every day in his jurisdiction and chooses to go back many, many years to try to use something about porn star hush-money payments. That is pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office.”
Bragg reportedly intends to charge Trump in connection with a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels to secure her silence during the 2016 presidential campaign. The DA would have to show that the money was paid for the sole purpose of the campaign and not for any other reason, such as avoiding public embarrassment or keeping Trump’s wife from learning about an affair.
DeSantis has refused to respond publicly after being attacked multiple times by Trump, who has dubbed him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” According to a Yahoo/YouGov poll conducted last month, voters preferred DeSantis over Trump in a head-to-head race by a margin of 45%-41%.
