Ron DeSantis addresses Donald Trump indictment, doesn’t mention ‘porn star hush money’

trump desantis
'Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances.'

Florida’s Governor was out of state Thursday, but that didn’t stop him from offering a Twitter denunciation of the Donald Trump indictment.

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” DeSantis decried.

“The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent. Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis added.

Trump is expected to surrender voluntarily in New York, so that pledge not to assist may not add up to much.

Though the Governor famously does not tweet, his office referenced the social media post when we asked for comment Thursday evening. The DeSantis commentary, which came after Trump’s PAC released a video denouncing the Governor as not ready to be President just hours before the Alvin Bragg indictment, avoided some of the previous criticism of Trump’s actions that led to the legal imbroglio.

Earlier this month,

DeSantis struck a balance between condemning the expected indictment by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a “George Soros prosecutor,” as spurious and political, while finding a way to drag Trump for “porn star hush money” allegedly paid to Stormy Daniels years ago.

“I’ve seen rumors swirl, I have not seen any facts yet. And so I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I do know this: the Manhattan District Attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor. And so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis contended, before eventually shivving Trump as well.

“You’re talking about this situation, and like, I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just can’t speak to that,” DeSantis said, before pivoting back to Bragg’s backing by Soros.

After the Panama City comments, both Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. laid into DeSantis for his comments about the former President’s legal woes, which were then rumored to be leading to an indictment at Mar-a-Lago later this week, which does not now appear to be the case.

On Truth Social, the former President pilloried the Florida Governor, casting aspersions on his sexuality in the process.

“Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are “underage” (or possibly a man!). I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!”

Trump’s comments were atop a post where he rebooted a scurrilous story about the Governor drinking with prep school students when he was a teacher decades ago. When compelled to comment last month, DeSantis acknowledged that while the media wanted “the controversy,” he was nonetheless more focused on the fight with Joe Biden than with the former President.

Trump Jr. had his say as well in the wake of DeSantis downplaying the former President’s expected indictment.

“So DeSantis thinks that Dems weaponizing the law to indict President Trump is a ‘manufactured circus’ & isn’t a ‘real issue,’” Trump Jr. tweeted. “Pure weakness. Now we know why he was silent all weekend. He’s totally owned by Karl RovePaul Ryan & his billionaire donors. 100% Controlled Opposition.”

Interestingly, the Governor was agnostic in a recent interview about whether people should protest, saying it’s up to them.

“I think that’s up to individuals,” the Governor said Thursday night during an interview on Newsmax.

“I mean, the one thing I will say that we’ve seen just in recent history … if you’re in a really deep blue jurisdiction like Washington D.C., perhaps Manhattan, you know, and you’re somebody that’s kind of on our side of the fence politically, you’re going to be treated more harshly than people that are on the other side politically,” DeSantis told host Eric Bolling.

“I think that there’s a separate standard of justice and so people should just be mindful that it’s sad that you have to say it. But I absolutely think that that’s been proven to be the case over these last many years.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


18 comments

  • tom palmer

    March 30, 2023 at 7:53 pm

    Gov. DeSantis knows a bit about weaponizing government to go after his real and perceived enemies. He also knows that the legal system has to play out now that there has been an indictment.

    • Tom

      March 31, 2023 at 10:07 am

      I saw the statement “The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” and nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Pot meets kettle. You can’t make this stuff up.

    • Jax

      March 31, 2023 at 11:00 am

      Unbelievable/sad, he is of the mindset that it’s not weaponiztion if I do it.

  • PeterH

    March 30, 2023 at 8:01 pm

    DeSantis political grandstanding…….100% absent of legal standing to make such statements! DeSantis HAS ABSOLUTELY NO AUTHORITY OR LEGAL STANDING to interfere with Trump’s extradition! Read the Constitution loose Twitter cannon!!

    Furthermore, Standard Criminal Grand Jury protocol demands that DeSantis needs some schooling Revelations about Trump’s extensive criminal activities are ONLY DISCLOSED at the arraignment!

  • Earl Pitts American

    March 30, 2023 at 8:48 pm

    Good evening Don,
    Ron and I, Earl Pitts American, got your back. If they lock you up Ron and I, Earl Pitts American, will smuggle in about 10 cartons of brand name menthol ciggeretts. You can rule the entire jail, guards and fellow inmates, with menthol ciggeretts my man. And we are bringing the Newports not those gross 305’s. So dont worry big guy Ron and I, Earl Pitts American, GOT YOU!!!
    Thank you Don,
    Earl Pitts American

  • Mercury Ed

    March 31, 2023 at 12:05 am

    What is Ron’s excuse for Don’s lies that incited a violent riot and of course, “I just need you to find more votes than we have?” Standing up for a crook who insults him daily… for payments made to a whore. Ron is pro crime.

  • Republicans are corrupt

    March 31, 2023 at 1:12 am

    Make no mistake about it. Ron DeSantis is far more dangerous than Donald Trump. He is Mussolini of this century.

  • Yrral

    March 31, 2023 at 3:56 am

    Obstruction of Justice,Aiding and abetting a Fugitive,will motivate anyone to turn over a criminal

  • Ron DeSantis should learn to read

    March 31, 2023 at 4:11 am

    Since DeSantis claims to love the Constitution so much, perhaps he should read it:
    “A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.” — Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2

  • Linda Frost

    March 31, 2023 at 6:19 am

    DeSantis is out of his League! If you look at his Body Language he is Not Presidential Caliber! He definitely hasn’t read the Constitution! Banning Books does that make you a Big Dictator! He thinks he will run all over President Biden! Biden hasn’t announced his bid to rerun for The Election! Biden has more Class in his little finger than DeSantis will ever Demonstrate!

  • Ian

    March 31, 2023 at 7:29 am

    Far-right influencer Stew Peters tweeted that DeSantis should send the Florida National Guard to protect the former president at the Mar-a-Lago resort. Peters was echoing calls from fringe factions of MAGA world for people to form a “patriot moat” around Mar-a-Lago to prevent Trump’s arrest.

    “Anything less proves DeSantis is a fraud,” wrote Peters on Sunday.

    ThANKS FOR WRITING STATE POLICY STEW

    • Bert Stimson

      March 31, 2023 at 10:25 pm

      Stew Peters is a HS dropout who couldnt even get a job interview with his local podunk police station. He’s a failure at real-life just like all major right-wing “media personalities”

  • It's Complicated

    March 31, 2023 at 11:21 am

    I’m having real difficulty understanding the nature of the crime. Paying a settlement with a ‘non-disclosure’ clause is legal (though the clause may not be enforceable). Recording such a settlement as a ‘business expense’ is legal. Using Trump Organization funds (i.e., corporate, not campaign) to pay a settlement is legal.

    It is unsavory, but I’m not seeing how this broke the law.

    • Bert Stimson

      March 31, 2023 at 10:22 pm

      You also haven’t read a single one of the 30+ counts the grand jury is indicting him on. But keep pretending with your “real difficulty.” Falsifying business records is an actual crime.

  • gloriajame

    March 31, 2023 at 1:12 pm

    Mike, great work. I applaud your efforts enormously because I currently make more than $36,000 per month from just one straightforward online business! You can begin vs03 creating a steady online income with as little as $29,000, and these are only the most basic internet operations jobs.
    .
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    Alternate the connection——————————>>> iplogger.ru/2i9NA4

  • Abu Musab Al Zarqawi

    April 1, 2023 at 2:04 am

    Ron don’t run against Don, you’re going to lose.

  • Tropical

    April 1, 2023 at 8:42 am

    We are seeing the Cautious Coward coming out now.
    Watch this creep closely. He must not ruin the USA the way he’s ruining Florida!

  • Ocean Joe

    April 1, 2023 at 10:44 am

    If Ron Desantis can remove Andrew Warren from office for saying he wouldn’t prosecute women over abortions, then shouldn’t Desantis be removed for saying he will refuse to honor the laws on extradition?

Comments are closed.


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