Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed the New York hush money trial against former President Donald Trump, criticizing it as “the most blatant case of election interference” in the history of the United States. Cruz’s comments came before the jury reached a guilty verdict on Thursday, convicting Trump on all 34 felony counts in the case.
The GOP Senator blasted Judge Juan Merchan, who presides over the case, claiming he disregarded the U.S. Constitution. Cruz particularly called out the jury instructions that were given by Merchan, who he described as “partisan.”
“Well, listen, Sean, I’ve got good news and bad news,” he stated. “The good news is the exchange you were just having with Jonathan Turley is exactly right. We now know to a virtual certainty that no conviction will be upheld on appeal. That the judge today committed I think clear reversible error. These jury instructions were nonsense. Now, here’s the bad news. The bad news is this has been a kangaroo court from the beginning. This is a wildly partisan prosecutor who hates Donald Trump, who came with a political objective of going after Donald Trump and we now know from these jury instructions that this judge is every bit the partisan that the prosecutor is.”
Further discussing the jury, the Texas Republican claimed Merchan ignored judicial precedent set forth by recent cases. Cruz illustrates that this provides a great starting point in the appeal process, given that Merchan is behaving as if the “Constitution does not apply.”
“And he knows this is a reversible error,” Cruz continued. “As you noted, Ramos versus Louisiana clearly held in 2020 that every element of the crime must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, must be unanimous by the jury and yet this judge says it doesn’t matter, not in New York. The Constitution does not apply in New York, which means if we get a conviction, it will be reversed on appeal, but the judge doesn’t care.”
The GOP congressman emphasized that “nobody cares” about the Constitution in this case because it isn’t about upholding the law but rather about political gain. Cruz maintained that the trial against Trump is the “most blatant” example of election interference.
“The prosecutor doesn’t care,” he added. “Nobody cares because this is not about law. This is not about criminal justice. This is about politics. This is all about the press conference, the national address that Joe Biden has scheduled to give from the White House where he gloats, we’ve now convicted Donald Trump. This is all about November. We are watching election interference. This is the most blatant case of election interference that we’ve ever seen in our country’s history.” Watch the interview below:
Former President Trump addressed the trial’s outcome in post-verdict comments, where he pledged that the “real verdict” would come with the election results. “This was a disgrace. This was a great trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a great trial and disgrace,” Trump said. “The real verdict is going to be November 5, by the people. And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here.”
"*" indicates required fields