Ron DeSantis once joked about Donald Trump trial. Now he’s condemning guilty verdict

The dynamic between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the man who defeated him in the 2024 presidential race is strong by many accounts, with the Governor committing to fundraise for Donald Trump.

Consistent with that, DeSantis offered a fiery defense of Trump after the former President’s historic conviction on 34 counts in a New York court.

“Today’s verdict represents the culmination of a legal process that has been bent to the political will of the actors involved: a leftist prosecutor, a partisan judge and a jury reflective of one of the most liberal enclaves in America — all in an effort to ‘get’ Donald Trump. That this case—involving alleged misdemeanor business records violations from nearly a decade ago — was even brought is a testament to the political debasement of the justice system in places like New York City. This is especially true considering this same district attorney routinely excuses criminal conduct in a way that has endangered law-abiding citizens in his jurisdiction,” DeSantis said on social media.

“It is often said that no one is above the law, but it is also true that no one is below the law. If the defendant were not Donald Trump, this case would never have been brought, the judge would have never issued similar rulings, and the jury would have never returned a guilty verdict. In America, the rule of law should be applied in a dispassionate, even-handed manner, not become captive to the political agenda of some kangaroo court.”

In the context of the revived Trump-DeSantis dynamic, however, it’s useful to remember a time last year when the Governor clowned on the former President for this particular legal imbroglio.

“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, amid condemnations of prosecutor Alvin Bragg being beholden to left-wing financier George Soros.

As DeSantis said back in March of last year that this trial was an exampled of a “weaponized” judiciary, he collected clap backs from the former President and current felon, as well as his namesake son.

On Truth Social, the former President pilloried the Florida Governor, casting aspersions on his heterosexuality 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.

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

DeSantis didn’t apologize for getting out of line, but he never made such statements again, going on to blame the sordid spectacle and Republicans rallying to Trump for not getting traction as a candidate.

“Look, I think, at the end of the day, the Bragg indictment just elevated him and it wasn’t so much that people were doing it because he was indicted. I think a lot of people, including me, believe that it was a miscarriage of justice,” DeSantis told Howard Kurtz on the Fox News Channel’s “Mediabuzz.”

The Governor added during the July 2023 hit that the indictment benefited Trump because “there was a lot of sympathy” and because it ended up “dominating the media coverage.”

He would stay on message on this subject through the balance of his campaign.