Cruz: Trump Indictment a ‘Political Persecution’

Tuesday on FNC’s “Hannity,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) questioned the merits of the effort of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to indict former President Donald Trump.

Cruz called the effort a political persecution and said the charge was “bogus.”

“Listen, the long and short of it is, this indictment, if it comes this week is absolutely outrageous,” he said. “It is frivolous. It is baseless. It is a political persecution. It is not a prosecution. It is targeting Donald Trump because Alvin Bragg is a left-wing Democrat who hates Donald Trump, and legally, this case is absurd on its face.”

“Now, it’s all based on two New York statutes that concern business records, the kind of records you keep in your business,” Cruz continued. “One makes it a misdemeanor to create a false or fraudulent business record. In this instance, what Bragg is trying to argue is that when Trump gave $130,000 to Michael Cohen, who allegedly paid it to Stormy Daniels as hush money, and he characterized that as legal fees, that business record was false and bogus.”

“Now, he’s got a problem with that theory, which is under New York state law, that’s only a misdemeanor,” he said. “That has a two-year statute of limitations, so you can’t even bring this claim now. So, Bragg has the second thing he has to do, which he has to bootstrap that into a different New York statute, which makes it a felony if you create a false business record in the aid of commission and of another crime, and presumably, that other crime is some sort of Federal Elections Commission violations. Now, the FEC refused to bring that case, the Department of Justice refused to bring that case, the Southern District of New York, Department of Justice refused to bring that case.”

“Bob Mueller and the Mueller investigation refused to bring that case,” Cruz added. “But Alvin Bragg is going to try to bring a case on a theory. You know, they tried it with John Edwards. Remember John Edwards? The Democrat senator who ran for president had an affair and then gave hush money to his mistress. They tried to prosecute him on this theory. The case got thrown out of court. This is ridiculous. It is bogus and pure partisan attack from a partisan DA.”

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