House Speaker Mike Johnson and two onetime contenders for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination backed up former president Donald Trump Tuesday at his “hush money” trial in Manhattan.
Johnson (R-La.) was seen standing behind Trump, 77, as the 45th president ripped the “scam” case involving a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election by Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen.
“I do have a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully, and they come from all over Washington,” Trump said of the Republicans standing behind him.
“And some are Democrats, and they’ve very embarrassed by what’s going on,” he added.
Johnson did not make an appearance in the courtroom, instead heading outside to rip Cohen and prosecutors led by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg as the ex-fixer took the stand for a second day of testimony.
“They are doing this intentionally to keep him here and keep him off of the campaign trail,” Johnson said, adding that the “sham” case was “not about justice and all about politics” and saying it would “provide cover” for President Biden.
“The president’s actions in this matter were previously reviewed and no charges were filed. Why is that? Because there’s no crime here,” he added. “It’s so corrupt.”
“What we’ve got here is a partisan Democrat district attorney, we have a Biden-donor judge and we have an assistant DA who was recently a top official at the Department of Justice — Biden’s DOJ — and recently received over $10,000 in payments from the Democratic National Committee.”
Johnson is the highest-ranking elected GOP lawmaker to visit the Manhattan courthouse after Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) made an appearance on Monday.
But Vance downplayed his stature, telling reporters outside the court: “I came here again today, on my own, because I am one of hundreds of millions of people, and one citizen who is deeply concerned about this.”
Vance is one of several potential picks for vice president on the Republican ticket in November, along with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who was part of the former president’s coterie on Tuesday.
Staunch Trump defender and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was also seen standing with Trump’s son Eric and his daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump.
“There’s never been anything like this in the history of our country — it’s a scam!” the former president declared. “It’s election interference at a level that’s never taken place before.”
Additional reporting by Ben Kochman.
