Republicans join Trump’s attacks on the justice system and his campaign of revenge after conviction

WASHINGTON: Republicans in Congress are embracing Donald Trump’s strategy of blaming the U.S. justice system following his historic conviction and are passionately joining his campaign of revenge and political retribution as Republicans seek to recapture the White House.

Almost no Republican politician has spoken out against Trump as the party’s presidential candidate in November’s election. In fact, some have tried to speed up his nomination. Few others have dared to defend the legitimacy of the New York state court that tried the hush money case against the former president or of the 12 jurors who unanimously reached their verdict.

In fact, any Republican who expressed doubts about Trump’s innocence or political viability – including his former warmongering national security adviser John Bolton or high-profile Senate candidate Larry Hogan – was immediately intimidated by the former president’s enforcers and told to “leave the party.”

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she would vote for Trump “whether he is a free man or a prisoner of the Biden regime.”

The fiery congresswoman also posted the upside-down American flag, which has become a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement that Trump and his allies launched before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The swift, vocal and increasing endorsement of Trump despite his conviction for a serious crime shows how Republican leaders and lawmakers have allowed his unfounded complaints about a “rigged” system and dangerous conspiracies of a “weaponized” government to permeate their own attacks on President Joe Biden and the Democrats.

Rather than disregarding Trump’s increasingly authoritarian language or ensuring they secure a second Trump term, Republican senators and representatives are shaking long-standing trust in the U.S. government and preparing the ground for what they plan to do should Trump return to power.

On Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan called on prosecutors Alvin Bragg and Matthew Colangelo to appear at a June hearing on the “weaponization of the federal government” and the “unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump – despite the fact that Biden, as president, has no authority over New York’s state courts.

“We are preparing for the fact that if Trump wins, he will use the state apparatus to target his political opponents,” said Jason Stanley, a professor at Yale and author of the book “How Fascism Works.”

Stanley said history is full of examples of people not believing the rhetoric of authoritarians. “Believe what they say,” he said. “He’s literally telling you he’s going to use the state apparatus to target his political opponents.”

On Friday, the former president repeated the kind of attacks he had already made in his campaign speeches at Trump Tower in New York: He portrayed Biden as “corrupt” and the United States as a “fascist” nation.

Trump called members of the bipartisan House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “thugs” and said Biden was a “Manchurian candidate,” a phrase inspired by a 1960s film depicting a puppet of a U.S. political enemy.

A memo from Trump’s campaign team contained arguments for Republican lawmakers, suggesting that the case be described as a “hoax,” “fraud,” “witch hunt,” “election interference” and “litigation” planned by Biden and described as “fraudulent.”

Biden faces no such charges, and efforts by House Republicans to impeach the president over his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings have largely stalled. Hunter Biden is due in court next week in Wilmington, Delaware, on an unrelated weapons charge.

President Biden said on Friday: “It is reckless, dangerous and irresponsible for someone to claim the trial was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”

When asked later at the White House if that could happen to him, Biden said: “Not at all. I did nothing wrong. The system still works.”

Responding to Trump’s claim that the case was staged by the Democratic president to harm him politically, Biden quipped: “I didn’t know I had that much power.”

In the hush money case, Trump was found guilty of influencing the 2016 election by making fake payments to a porn actress to cover up her story of an affair. He faces three other charges, including the federal case for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, but those are unlikely to be heard before the expected November campaign with Biden.

Thursday’s verdict came after a jury found Trump guilty of sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 2023 and a judge in a 2024 white-collar fraud trial found that Trump had lied about his wealth for years and sentenced him to a whopping $355 million fine.

Almost without exception, all Republicans in Congress who raised their voices were Trump’s only voice.

On “Fox & Friends,” spokesman Mike Johnson reiterated the claim that Democrats wanted to harm Trump without being able to provide evidence. He said the Supreme Court would have to “intervene” to clarify the case.

“The judges of the court – many of whom I know personally – are, I believe, as deeply concerned about this as we are,” the Republican spokesman said.

Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he expected Trump to win the hush money case on appeal. The three senators who are seeking to replace him as House leader echoed Trump’s comments and criticized the justice system even more harshly.

South Dakota Senator John Thune said the case was “politically motivated.” Texas Senator John Cornyn called the ruling “a disgrace.” Florida Senator Rick Scott said anyone who considers themselves a party leader must “stand up and condemn the lawless election interference.”

And Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who is seen as a bipartisan leader, said the prosecutor “brought these charges precisely because of the person of the defendant and not because of any specific criminal conduct.”

With the verdict in the hush money trial expected to come before the Republican National Convention in July, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said Republicans should move up the convention to speed up Trump’s nomination as the party’s presidential candidate.

Republican Attorney General Mike Davis, a former senior Senate staffer who is being considered for a future post in the Trump administration, distributed a letter outlining next steps.

“Dear Republicans,” he wrote in a Friday post, if their reaction to the guilty verdict was “we must respect the process” or “we are too principled to retaliate,” he advised them to do two things: one is a dirty word, the other: “leave the party.”

Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, circulated a letter of his own, claiming it was the White House that had “made a mockery” of the rule of law and changed policy in an “un-American” way. He and other senators threatened to block the Senate’s work until Republicans took action.

“Those who have turned our justice system into a political weapon must be held accountable,” Lee said.

__ Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Ali Swenson and Chris Megerian contributed to this story.