Speaking during an appearance on Fox News Channel with host Jesse Watters, Trump attorney Todd Blanche called out the verdict in the so-called “hush money” case brought against the former President by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Blanche argued that the verdict wasn’t only a dark day for America but could have been a violation of Trump’s constitutional rights.
Blanche’s comments came the day after Trump attorney Will Scharf, before Trump was convicted, suggested that the Trump legal team might go on the counter-offensive and sue DA Bragg for “malicious prosecution.” He said that, if Trump was found not guilty, “I think the case for malicious prosecution here is extraordinarily strong, OK? I mean, this is not a case that would have been brought against any defendant not named Donald Trump and any defendant who, frankly, wasn’t running for president.”
Then, the next day, after Trump was convicted, Blanche spoke to Jesse Watters about the verdict. Watters introduced the constitutional angle of the potential pushback from the Trump legal team. Asking Blanche bluntly about that aspect of the continuing situation, Watters asked, “Do you believe that Donald Trump’s constitutional rights were violated?”
Blanche immediately agreed that the former president’s constitutional rights were violated, saying, “Trump’s constitutional rights were violated in many ways.” Continuing, he described the First Amendment aspect of the trial, namely the gag order, saying, “If you look at the gag order that was put in place, and you had a situation where President Trump, who’s on the campaign trail and is trying to compete with voices that are saying things every day that he cannot respond to without the risk of being fined, which he was, or going to prison for violating it.”
Building on that, he argued that the sort of constitutional rights violation seen in the Trump case is an issue that affects not just the former president but everyone in America. He said, “That affects not only President Trump, that affects every voter, whether they’re going to vote for President Trump or against President Trump.”
Adding to that, he added that the Trump legal team had disagreed with the gag order, saying, “We very much disagree with that order. We appealed that as well.” He continued, saying that the verdict is just the tip of the iceberg, “There was a lot about what happened over the past year that, you know, I sit here tonight, the verdict just came down today, but really there’s a lot that’s happened over the past year that I think that Americans should look very hard at.”
Blanche also noted that DA Bragg was incorrect in saying that this sort of case was common, as it is very much not. Making that point, he told Watters, “Just that the whole way this case was charged. The district attorney says that this type of case is a bread and butter, that they do these cases all the time. That is not true It’s just not true.”
Explaining why it is very much atypical, he said, “This is a case that the records of President Trump’s personal records, his personal checkbook from 2017 — from 2017, is what he was on trial for. That does not happen all the time. That doesn’t happen all the time in Manhattan. That doesn’t happen all the time in any jurisdiction in this country.”
He then added that Trump was not treated like others, telling Watters, “And that’s fine. That’s fine if you want to indict somebody and go after somebody for conduct that happened in 2017. But I think where it becomes problematic for me as a lawyer, is don’t look me in the eye and say, ‘this is bread and butter. We do this all the time. That we’re treating President Trump like we treat anybody else. like we treat anybody else.’ That’s not true.”
Watch Blanche here:
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