Former Vice President of the United States and likely candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election Mike Pence on Thursday qualified the indictment of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) by a new grand jury. Yorkers of “political persecution”. .
In an interview on CNN, Pence, vice chairman of the Trump administration, said that “the idea of a former president being indicted for the first time in United States history in a campaign finance case smacks of political persecution”. “
“I think the vast majority of the American people will see it that way,” he added.
Trump was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday for paying to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
According to CNN, the former president faces more than 30 charges related to commercial fraud and could appear in court as early as Tuesday.
Pence made it clear that he believes “no one is above the law” but that this particular case “will only serve to further divide the country.”
Trump’s indictment drew a barrage of criticism from many GOP officials, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who suggested he would use GOP power to “hold accountable” the prosecutor in charge of the case, Alvin Bragg.
Much of the criticism has focused on the prosecutor, who is from the Democratic Party. Pence himself claimed that Bragg had “campaigned” with a promise to impeach Trump.
On the Democratic side, former Speaker of the House of Representatives before McCarthy, Nancy Pelosi, assured on Twitter that she hopes that “the former president will respect the system peacefully”, and recalled that “no one is above laws”.
Senate President Chuck Schumer was more cautious than his fellow Republicans, calling for no political interference or intimidation in the case. Schumer assured that the former Republican president is subject to “the same laws as any American”, according to a press release from his office.
One who has not commented on the news so far is Senate Conservative leader Mitch McConnell, the main opposition figure to Trump in the Republican Party and a frequent target of criticism from the former president.