Trump Indictment Unifies GOP, Undermines American’s Trust in Justice System: Pundits

Political pundits and legal analysts claim that the indictment of Donald Trump has brought together a once-fractured Republican Party. However, it is also expected to erode the confidence of Americans in the justice system.

Gavin Wax, President of the New York Young Republican Club, told The Epoch Times that the indictment will have a negative rather than positive impact and may leave an unsatisfactory taste in mouths. He added that “it’s bigger than Trump.”

All five Republican candidates vying for the party nomination have ignored political considerations and criticised Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for the indictment. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who is considered Trump’s most significant competitor for the nomination, called the charges un-American and pledged that Florida would not assist New York with Trump’s extradition. “The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” DeSantis said in a tweet.

Even Republican party progressives like Gov. Chris Sununu (New Hampshire), who is known for his criticism of Trump and has been labelled a RINO (Republican in name only), condemned the indictment, feeling that the former president was “being attacked.”

Trump’s lawyer Jesse Binnall commented that no one likes a bully and believes that the indictment of Bragg will be seen as prosecutorial bullying, worsening the image of the justice system. “It’s a very, very dangerous road that they have decided to down here,” he further stated.

Peggy Noonan, a veteran columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner who criticised Trump in the past, also joined Trump loyalists in warning that the indictment could bring unwanted scrutiny to Bragg’s office and the entire American justice system. In an article entitled “The Wrong Indictment Against Trump,” the Wall Street Journal columnist called the indictment “below us—not below him, but us.”

Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and a Trump supporter, warned that even if the accusations against Trump are genuine, the indictment will hamper the American justice system’s credibility. In a commentary for the National Review, he wrote: “If reports are to be believed, it is not merely an unworthy exercise of prosecutorial discretion. It is one that will threaten the legitimacy of the justice system—on the public acceptance of which the rule of law hinges.”

According to Wax, the indictment of Bragg would not help to resolve the issue.