Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Friday for his investigation into former President Donald Trump over alleged hush money payments from several years ago.
Cruz called the indictment “outrageous” on his podcast “Verdict” with co-host Ben Ferguson.
“Part of me is sad, because it is tragic for the rule of law. This indictment is utter and complete garbage,” Cruz said. “This is not law. This is not a prosecution based on the facts. This is a political vendetta brought by a left-wing partisan Democrat who was elected by George Soros, a billionaire who spent over a million dollars to elect Alvin Bragg as District Attorney.”
“On the merits, this case is utterly baseless, it is frivolous,” Cruz said, adding that he believes that the case will fall apart in court.
“If you’re in Russia, this can happen to you,” he said. “If you’re in China, this can happen to you, if you’re in North Korea or Venezuela or Cuba, this is what banana republics do. This is what dictatorships do.”
“We’re built on rule of law. We’re built on the law applying to everyone,” he said. “And so as a conservative, this makes me sad. But I gotta say the irony, then, if I were a liberal Democrat, I’d be horrified right now. Because even while this is devastating to the rule of law, to the confidence the American people will have in our justice system, at the same time, I think this is an enormous political gift to Donald Trump.”
Trump will be arraigned in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, court officials said on Friday. Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said he does not expect his client to be placed in handcuffs when he turns himself in, and that Trump “will not take a plea deal on this case. It’s not gonna happen.”
Cruz said that this was just the opening “salvo” in U.S. presidents getting indicted now that it happened to Trump.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
“This puts America on a road that is a very, very bad road,” he said. “You know, you look back in history, Richard Nixon, who committed multiple crimes, as you know. I’m not a Nixon fan, my latest book, ‘Justice Corrupted’, there’s an entire chapter detailing the crimes and obstruction of justice and abuse carried out by the Nixon White House. But I gotta say, when Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, it probably cost Gerald Ford his election. It probably elected Jimmy Carter. But Gerald Ford did it because he believed he was helping the country. He believed that having a trial of the former president, even a president, as corrupt as Nixon, he thought would be deeply harmful for the country.”