Prominent Utah Republicans are sounding off on former President Donald Trump’s indictment in New York, suggesting the charges may be politically motivated.
On Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of altering business records relating to hush money payments allegedly made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to cover up her affair with Trump, who was then a presidential candidate.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, one of Trump’s most vocal critics, said he still feels that Trump’s personal conduct makes him unfit to hold political office, but the current case against him seems to be unfair.
“I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda. No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system,” Romney said in a statement.
Sen. Mike Lee weighed in on Trump’s arraignment on social media twice on Tuesday. On his official U.S. Senate Twitter account, Lee also said the prosecution of Trump was motivated by a political agenda.
“This isn’t justice, solemnly and blindly carried out. This is using the law to selectively punish for political gain. It is a disgrace and will profoundly change our country for the worse,” Lee said.
On his personal “Based Mike Lee” Twitter profile, Lee posted a link to the 16-page indictment of Trump and said, “When criminal law becomes weaponized as a means of retaliating against political opponents, liberty always loses.”
Utah Republican Party Chairman Carson Jorgensen is urging caution because the prosecution still has to make its case against Trump, which he believes will be difficult.
“Time will tell if anything can be proven. This seems to me like they are going about this in the wrong way. In this country, we believe in innocent until proven guilty. It seems like they want him to be guilty, and they are hunting something to prove it,” Jorgensen said.
Utah Republicans still want Donald Trump to be the party’s presidential nominee, but it’s unclear how Tuesday’s felony charges will impact that support.
The arraignment of the former president comes as a new poll from the nonpartisan polling firm OH Predictive Insights shows 41% of Utah Republicans support Trump for the GOP nomination next year. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who will be the keynote speaker at the Utah GOP convention later this month, gets 23% of GOP support.
The survey of 302 registered Utah Republicans was conducted March 14-23, before news broke that a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict Trump on March 30.
Mike Noble, chief of research for OH Predictive Insights, believes the Trump indictment will affect his support in Utah in two ways.
“Among Trump loyalists, it’ll validate the witch-hunt argument, and he’ll likely get a bump in the GOP primary. However, it’s too soon to say, but it’ll likely have a negative impact on swing voters and moderate Republicans — which is no good for the all-important general election,” Noble said.
The survey showed former Vice President Mike Pence with the backing of 10% of Utah Republicans. Former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was the preferred presidential nominee of just 5% of Utah Republicans. Several other potential candidates, including Sens. Tim Scott and Marco Rubio, Governors Glenn Youngkin, Chris Sununu and Asa Hutchinson, failed to garner more than 3% support.
Follow @@SchottHappens