Speaker Mike Johnson slams the case against Trump as ‘so corrupt’

Speaker Mike Johnson slammed the case against Donald Trump as ‘so corrupt’ and and warned the public not to ‘believe a word’ Michael Cohen says on the stand on Tuesday. ‘It’s impossible for anybody to deny, that looks at this objectively, that the judicial system in our country has been weaponized against President Trump. The system is using all the tools at its disposal right now to punish one president and provide cover for another,’ Johnson said in brief remarks outside the courthouse. Johnson also went after Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter.

‘Among the atrocities here, the judge’s own daughter is making millions of dollars doing online fundraising for Democrats . They’re using this trial as a hook. It’s so corrupt.’ Merchan’s daughter, Loren, runs a digital marketing agency called Authentic Campaigns, which works with Democratic candidates and non-profits. Trump’s lawyers have argued her work poses a conflict of interest and have unsuccessfully sought to oust Merchan from the case.

The judge had also made several small donations totaling $35 to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, including $15 to Biden. A state court ethics panel found that Loren Merchan’s work had no bearing on his impartiality. Johnson also promised his Republican-led House would work to ‘rein in the abuses of special counsel Jack Smith,’ who oversees the cases against Trump for his involvement in the January 6 Capitol riot and mishandling of classified documents.

‘I’m working with Chairman Jordan of the House Judiciary Committee, Chairman Comar of our Oversight Committee on measures to rein in the abuses of Special Counsel Jack Smith,’ said Johnson. He also called to mind ‘the latest revelation is that they’ve manipulated documents they might have tampered with the evidence in the case., it seems, and that doesn’t surprise any of us in Congress.’ In recent filings, Smith acknowledged some of Trump’s documents in the boxes the FBI hauled back from Mar-a-Lago are not in the same order they were when they were seized.

Johnson and a number of other conservative figures accompanied Trump to court on Tuesday in a show of support. Some critics noted the irony of Johnson, a deeply devout Christian who has talked about monitoring his son’s porn usage, appearing alongside Trump during a trial related to him having sex with a porn star. ‘Have to admit I’m surprised that [Johnson] wants to be in the “I cheated on my wife with a porn star” club. I guess he’s not that concerned with teaching morality to our young people after all,’ ex-GOP Rep. Liz Cheney wrote on X.

Cohen returned to the stand on Tuesday morning to deliver more testimony against his old boss former President Trump. The fixer and lawyer, who was convicted over the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and lying to Congress, is set to face grueling questioning from the former president’s lawyers. The prosecution’s star witness told the court on Monday how he would silence the former president’s accusers before the 2016 election with a series of hush money deals.

The jury heard that Trump was more worried about his campaign than his wife Melania as stories of alleged affairs emerged. Cohen also described working at ‘the direction of and for the benefit’ of the presumptive Republican nominee. The $130,000 payout for an alleged 2006 sexual encounter between Daniels and Trump isn’t illegal, but Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide it, a charge he denies.

Trump’s lawyers have insisted the hush money payment was more to protect his wife from being upset than to influence the 2016 election. ‘He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,’ Cohen insisted on Monday as Trump shook his head. When the story resurfaced, Cohen said Trump cornered him: ‘I thought you took care of this?’ Cohen claims Trump also said: ‘This is a disaster, total disaster. Women are going to hate me. Women will hate me. Guys, they think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.’

Cohen said he asked Trump how he thought the affair would impact his marriage and Trump said: ‘Don’t worry… how long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long.’ Cohen said he coughed up the $130,000 himself, setting up a shell company listed as a real estate consulting firm, and prosecutors say Trump later paid him back and covered it up as a legal retainer fee. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records.

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