Republican lawmakers were apoplectic about the Trump verdict Thursday, with many joining the MAGA chorus in declaring it a political, sham trial, in an effort to delegitimize the jury’s decision.
Some reactions were brief: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted an image of an upside-down American flag, a symbol associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement, which treats President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win as illegitimate.
House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) echoed oft-repeated spin from Trump and his legal team, calling it a “zombie case” brought before a “highly conflicted Judge” that relied on “testimony of a convicted felon who was disbarred for lying.”
“Today’s verdict shows how corrupt and rigged the American justice system has become under Joe Biden,” Stefanik said in a statement. “I fully support President Trump appealing this decision and look forward to the New York Court of Appeals delivering justice and overturning this verdict.”
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who co-led the failed impeachment inquiry into Biden, called the Trump verdict a “travesty of justice.”
“The Manhattan kangaroo court shows what happens when our justice system is weaponized by partisan prosecutors in front of a biased judge with an unfair process, designed to keep President Trump off the campaign trail and avoid bringing attention to President Biden’s failing radical policies,” Jordan said in a statement on X.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who voiced his support for Trump outside the trial while it was underway, reiterated his argument that the trial was “lawfare.”
“The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden administration, and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents,” Johnson said.
Outside of Congress, former Trump rival and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defended the man who ritually humiliated him.
“It is often said that no one is above the law, but it is also true that no one is below the law,” DeSantis said in a statement. “If the defendant were not Donald Trump, this case would never have been brought, the judge would have never issued similar rulings, and the jury would have never returned a guilty verdict.”
