'Political persecution,' 'Un-American': 5 reactions to Trump's indictment

5. Jonathan Turley chastises ‘overtly political’ indictment

In an appearance on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Friday, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley contended that “we know how this indictment came about,” describing it as “overtly political.”

“The federal crime was not only declined by the Justice Department but [Bragg’s] predecessor declined the state prosecution and then he himself, Bragg, threw a snag on this case. It was only after his two top prosecutors resigned and did something I think is just unbelievably unprofessional and went on a public campaign to indict Donald Trump that Bragg finally caved.”

Turley elaborated on the history behind the effort to secure an indictment in an op-ed published on his personal website as well as Fox News: “Two prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, resigned from the Manhattan DA’s office. Pomerantz then did something that some of us view as a highly unprofessional and improper act. He published a book on the case against Trump — a person who was still under investigation and not charged, let alone convicted, of any crime.”

“It worked. Bragg ran on his pledge to bag Trump and Pomerantz ramped up the political base to demand an indictment for a crime. It really did not matter what that crime might be,” Turley wrote. Referring to the “attempt to revive a misdemeanor for falsifying business documents that expired years ago” reportedly surrounding the case, Turley maintained that “Bragg could not have raised a weaker basis to prosecute a former president.”

Turley surmised that Bragg “may attempt to ‘bootstrap’ the misdemeanor into a felony (and longer statute of limitations) by alleging an effort to evade federal election charges.”