Speaker Renner lambasts Trump indictment: ‘It’s abhorrent and it’s wrong’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, called out the indictment of former President Donald Trump at the Florida Capitol on Tuesday.
Speaking to members of the press, Renner was asked his thoughts on Tuesday’s expected arraignment of the former president.
“You’ve had […] three years now of the Biden administration who, I’m sure, if they could have indicted Donald Trump, would have done so a long, long time ago,” he said. “You have to exercise prosecutorial discretion in a really, really careful way and also consider as we did with Bill Clinton.”
“And at the end of the day, you do not have a rule of law if people put their partisan interest. And more specifically in this case, prosecuting a partisan adversary, you don’t have a rule of law anymore,” Renner said.
“[It makes us a] third world country. And I think [District Attorney] Alvin Bragg has taken us in a dramatic step in that direction,” he said. “So, I think it’s abhorrent and it’s wrong, and the rule of law should not be weaponized for political purposes.”
Renner’s comments come not long before the former president is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan.
Other Florida Republicans, including Reps. Byron Donalds, Matt Gaetz, Anna Paulina Luna, and Cory Mills called out Trump’s indictment
“What we don’t do in America is turn the criminal justice system against a political opponent. When voters look at this mockery of our criminal justice system and consider Biden’s abysmal presidency, former President Trump will assume the presidency again as the 47th POTUS,” Donalds said.
“By lodging this criminal indictment on President Trump, the NY District Attorney has also singlehandedly shown the American people the obscene perversion that has become our “justice system,” Luna said on Twitter.
Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed similar disdain to Renner and other Florida Republicans when the indictment was just a rumor based on anonymous sourcing, calling it “fundamentally wrong.”
After news broke of the impending indictment, DeSantis vowed Florida would not aid any potential extradition request.
If convicted, Trump would not be prevented from running for president in 2024.
