DeSantis attacks DC jurors after Trump indictment
Florida governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis took aim at Washington jurors following the historic third indictment against former President Trump, calling the capital city a “swamp.”
Trump on Tuesday was indicted by a Washington grand jury on charges of four counts stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The charges against Trump are the most serious to ever be brought against a former U.S. president.
DeSantis slammed the outcome of the indictment in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the news broke.
“While I’ve seen reports, I have not read the indictment,” DeSantis wrote. “I do, though, believe we need to enact reforms so that Americans have the right to remove cases from Washington, DC to their home districts.”
He added, “Washington, DC is a ‘swamp’ and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality.”
The indictment proves the government has been weaponized, DeSantis claimed.
“One of the reasons our country is in decline is the politicization of the rule of law. No more excuses—I will end the weaponization of the federal government.”
The four charges laid out in the 45-page indictment from special counsel Jack Smith are conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won,” the indictment states.
Trump will make his first court appearance in the case Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C., and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan will oversee the case, according to the docket of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..