Former President Donald Trump said the indictments handed down to the Trump Organization and the company’s chief financial officer are “reminiscent of a communist dictatorship.”
Accusing New York prosecutors of “prosecutorial misconduct,” Trump told a crowd in Florida the indictments against the Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg showed the leadership in “Democrat-run cities” are “corrupting and weaponizing the law against their political opponents.”
“Radical Left New York City and state prosecutors who have allowed crime to skyrocket … are now outrageously and shamefully continuing the greatest witch hunt. That’s what they do,” he said Saturday night. “They go and target me.”
TRUMP AT OHIO RALLY: ‘I TOLD YOU SO’
Trump called the indictments “the kind of persecution … that you would see in a Third World nation.”
“It’s reminiscent of a communist dictatorship targeting your political opponents, … fabricating charges to try and silence them, abusing the justice system, and leaking out information on a daily basis in the press to engage in flagrant character assassination,” he continued.
Trump said it was “unprecedented, unheard of, and totally unacceptable in America for prosecutors to run for office on a promise to ‘get’ their political enemies,” adding that an unnamed prosecutor in New York state who is running for office, likely Attorney General Letitia James, said, “We’re going to get Trump.”
“She knows nothing about me,” Trump said. “All she knows is she’s going to ‘get’ me, from the day she got in.”
The former president said the prosecutors’ efforts were “fascist and authoritarian.”
“The people who talk about democracy are literally destroying it before our very eyes,” he continued
On Wednesday, a Manhattan grand jury returned criminal indictments against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg. Though the exact charges remain unknown, they “relate to the alleged failure by Weisselberg to pay New York state and federal income taxes on approximately $1.7 million in compensation,” according to a Thursday press release from James’s office. Defendants in the case are expected to appear before a judge on Thursday.
James, widely believed to be a potential primary opponent to incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance have been conducting investigations into the financial affairs of the Trump Organization.
“Today is an important marker in the ongoing criminal investigation of the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg,” James said in Thursday’s press release. “In the indictment, we allege, among other things, financial wrongdoing whereby the Trump Organization engaged in a scheme with Mr. Weisselberg to avoid paying taxes on certain compensation. This investigation will continue, and we will follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”
Jeffrey McConney, longtime controller of the Trump Organization, became the first employee to testify before a grand jury after he was issued a subpoena.
Lawyers for the Trump Organization met virtually with Manhattan prosecutors last week. Ronald Fischetti, a lawyer for the company, downplayed the case, saying Trump would not face charges in the first indictment and adding the company would plead not guilty.
Trump slammed the charges at the time they were announced, calling them a continuation of the “witch hunt” that was the special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller into allegations the Trump campaign colluded with Russia ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
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“This is purely political, and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the Presidential Election, and it’s being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors,” Trump said in a statement.
Saturday’s rally marked Trump’s second since his departure from office, following a rally last Saturday in Wellington, Ohio.
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Original Author: Carly Roman
Original Location: Trump on company’s indictment: ‘Reminiscent of a communist dictatorship’