Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) suggested Friday that New York’s case for silence against former President Trump was only brought because of his name and run for the White House.
“The attorney general’s case in New York, frankly, should never have been brought,” Cuomo said Friday on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” “And if his name wasn’t Donald Trump and he wasn’t running for president… I’m the former general counsel of New York. [and] I’m telling you this case would never have been brought.”
“That’s what’s offensive to people, and it should be, because if there’s anything left is belief in the justice system,” he added.
Trump was found guilty late last month on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a payment to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign to buy her silence about an alleged past affair. Trump, who denies the case, has promised to appeal the case.
The case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who has been repeatedly accused by Trump and his allies of unfairly attacking him as the presumptive Republican Party prepares for a rematch against President Biden in November.
Trump’s guilty verdict was unanimous among the 12 jurors, although allies of the former president have tried to throw cold water on his legitimacy, pointing to what they believe was a biased judge and jury selection process.
Cuomo was elected attorney general of New York in 2007 and served as the state’s governor for 11 years. The former governor resigned from his post in 2021 following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and backlash over his policies against the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuomo denied the allegations.
The former governor apparently agreed that there is a problem in the justice system. He warned the Manhattan district attorney’s office against using the system to play politics.
“And you want to talk about a threat to democracy: When this country believes that you are playing politics with the justice system and you are trying to put people in prison or convict them for political reasons, then we have a real problem. ,” Cuomo said on Friday.
Trump currently has a slim 0.6 percentage point lead over President Biden, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling index.
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