Conservative attorney George Conway on Monday slammed Republicans for defending Donald Trump against potential criminal charges in New York.
The former president said in a post on his social media site over the weekend that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday as part of the investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The investigation is related to a 2016 payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, who was paid days before the 2016 presidential election because she was allegedly going public about her relationship with Trump in 2006.
“Republicans are acting like complete disgraces,” said Conway, who is in the process of divorcing former Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway. “By saying that Trump is persecuted, he is saying that you cannot touch Trump and that Trump is above the law.”
“And whatever slack you may want to cut the former president, who is gone after January 6,” he said. “This man is a recidivist criminal. I mean, he did fraud his whole life. He lied his whole life.”
Prominent Republicans were quick to defend Trump after the announcement. Several members of the House of Representatives, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, described the potential indictment as politically motivated and an abuse of power.
“You will reportedly be involved in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of the former President of the United States and the current announced candidate for that office,” Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), James Comer (Ky.) and Bryan Steil (Wis.), The chairman of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Administration committee wrote in a letter to Bragg on Monday.
Conway said the Republican defense was “completely ridiculous” given the evidence. Republicans are seeking to discredit the version of events provided by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, who was jailed in 2018 for his involvement in hush money payments. Cohen has cooperated with authorities in multiple investigations into Trump and said he facilitated the payments at Trump’s behest.
“The idea that Cohen will be discredited on this is absurd because of the paper trail. We saw checks signed by Donald Trump,” Conway said. “It’s hard to say that he was singled out for paying $130,000 to a porn star and hiding it and using a straw donor, Cohen, to do it and say he was wronged when no one ever did.”