Just a few months after suspending local prosecutors because they said they would not pursue an abortion case, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed to defy the US Constitution to protect the new Donald Trump accused of criminal charges by refusing to extradite him to the state of New York.
“It seems that Gov. DeSantis should immediately suspend Gov. DeSantis,” said Andrew Warren, the Republican governor removed from the elected position in Tampa’s Hillsborough County last summer and who is now suing to regain his job. “The hypocrisy speaks for itself.”
The promise of DeSantis is likely to be moot in this case, as Trump’s lawyer has indicated that he will voluntarily surrender himself for arraignment next week, but it demonstrates again the problem of the possible presidential candidate who is trying to woo the Republican vote base of Trump.
“It’s said that he wants to take a subservient posture to Trump in the primary, where the campaign is doing Trump’s bidding instead of affirmatively making a case for himself,” said Amanda Carpenter, a former top aide to Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “Ron’s making trouble for himself basically, forget most of it.”
DeSantis’ press office did not respond to HuffPost’s inquiries on the matter.
The Constitution of the United States, in Article 4, Section 2, as well as the Extradition Act clearly states that each country must honor the arrest request of each other country to avoid the problem of criminals fleeing from justice simply by crossing state lines.
On Thursday night, two hours after the news that Trump was indicted by a New York City grand jury on charges related to paying $130,000 to porn stars before the 2016 election, DeSantis sent a statement accusing the Manhattan District. Attorney Alvin Bragg of the politically motivated lawsuit.
“Florida will not assist with extradition requests because of the questionable circumstances surrounding the Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” he said. writereferring to the general right-wing attack on George Soros, billionaire liberal donor and philanthropist.
How a Harvard-trained lawyer and a former Navy SEAL attorney could simply shirk their legal and constitutional responsibilities baffled Floridians on both sides.
“What are you going to do? Standing at the school entrance? So another George Wallace?” wondered one top Republican consultant who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Maybe he can offer Trump shelter in the governor’s house.”
Nikki Fried, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said the statement provides more evidence that DeSantis is willing to break the law whenever it’s politically motivated. “They don’t care what the law or the Constitution says. It’s all about the title,” said Fried, who served in the state’s elected Cabinet when DeSantis was agriculture commissioner.
Norm Eisen, a former lawyer in the Obama White House who later worked on the House impeachment of Trump for extorting Ukraine, said DeSantis has shown a willingness to break the law many times, from using taxpayer money to fly asylum seekers from Mexico. bordering Martha’s Vineyard to suspend Warren to prosecute ex-felons for voting after election officials allowed him to register. “He’s no different than the people he’s trying to protect,” Eisen said.
DeSantis was attacked as disloyal two weeks ago for not enthusiastically supporting Trump after he claimed, falsely, that he would be arrested in the hush money case on Tuesday, March 21. submitted and, in any event, they don’t know how to pay for obscene actors.
The remarks came shortly after his declaration that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was merely a “territorial dispute,” which DeSantis reversed himself less than a week later.
“He got a dose of medicine from the last base when he said he wouldn’t bother, so now he’s backing down, just like he did in Ukraine,” said GOP consultant Sarah Longwell, who added that DeSantis could make himself a “sour spot” with primary voters. “Where a big chunk sees him as disloyal to Trump, but another chunk thinks he’s too sycophantic.”
Even vowing to break his oath to protect the Constitution to help Trump, however, appears to be displeased with the former coup attempt president, who has been attacking DeSantis for weeks. On Thursday, a pro-Trump super PAC began running more than $1 million in negative ads about DeSantis on national cable networks.
And in a campaign statement Friday that cited more than 100 Republican elected officials who criticized Bragg’s indictment, including several members of the Florida House, two U.S. senators and even state Attorney General Ashley Moody, DeSantis’ oath was not mentioned.
Trump, in addition to the New York indictment, is also facing a criminal investigation in Georgia for trying to overturn the defeat of the 2020 elections in that country as well as by the US Department of Justice, which is examining the coup d’état on January 6, 2021. The attempt is also the refusal to turn over secret documents as a refusal to subpoena.