Speaking to reporters later, he said, “We are not here to protect President Trump, we are here to protect equal justice.”
McCarthy’s comments come as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Brock decides whether to charge Trump a $130,000 fee to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the first case in US history in which a former president has been indicted. Trump has denied the matter.
While it’s unclear what the charges will be, they appear to include falsifying business records. It stems from Trump listing his reimbursements to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, who sent the money to Daniels as “legal expenses.”
The statute of limitations on charges related to false business records generally requires an indictment to be filed within five years, but the statute of limitations is suspended when the defendant is not continuously in New York. Prosecutors could argue that since Trump has not been in New York the entire time of his presidency and has since moved his residence to Florida, he is still subject to the law.
“It’s personal money. … It’s seven years ago, the statute of limitations,” McCarthy said.
During the news conference, McCarthy tried to draw comparisons between Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee’s investigation into alleged misreporting of expenses related to the now-infamous Steele dossier. Under a settlement with the Federal Election Commission, the DNC agreed to pay a $105,000 fine and the Clinton campaign an $8,000 fine.
“We live in America and it’s supposed to be equal justice,” McCarthy said, pointing out that there was no criminal prosecution in that situation.
McCarthy and several House Republicans rushed to Trump’s defense, calling on his supporters to protest the former president’s trial after he said on his Truth Community account on Saturday that he would be indicted.
While rallying for Trump, McCarthy said Trump supporters shouldn’t protest if the former president is impeached. “I don’t think people should protest this, no,” McCarthy said during a news conference on Sunday. “President Trump, if you talked to him, I don’t think he would believe it.”
Posting on his Truth social site on Saturday, Trump wrote that he would be “arrested on Tuesday” and called on people to “resist”. Despite the status of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, his advisers said Trump’s team had no specific knowledge of the timing of any indictment.
McCarthy told reporters that he had not spoken to Trump in three weeks and had not spoken to him about the investigation.
In January, Trump endorsed McCarthy, who fought for the speakership, and finally won on the 15th ballot. Still, Trump and the man he called “my Kevin” had a rocky relationship at best.
On January 6, 2021, after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, McCarthy said Trump was to blame and should resign, at one point saying, “I was with this guy,” according to an audio recording. Published in April.
The Audio The post contradicted McCarthy’s claim that he did not want Trump to resign after the uprising. McCarthy insisted that his comments came from “different circumstances” and that he “never intended it.” [Trump] to resign,” according to CBS NewsAlthough McCarthy said in the audio that he was considering resigning the president.
Despite the condemnation, in late January 2021, McCarthy visited Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where both the GOP’s efforts to retake the House and They posed for a photo together.
