“‘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, I can’t speak to that.’”
That was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reacting to the possibility that former President Donald Trump could be arrested on Tuesday as part of a New York grand jury investigation into hush-money payments made to a woman who allegedly had sexual encounters with Trump.
At a press conference Monday, DeSantis also criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, accusing him of having “weaponized” his office.
“If you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush-money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda,” DeSantis said.
On Saturday, Trump claimed on his social-media platform Truth Social that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday in the grand jury case and called on his supporters to protest.
A spokesperson and a lawyer for Trump said his Truth Social post was based on media reports — though they did not say which ones — rather than any communication with prosecutors, according to the Associated Press.
In response to Trump’s posts, Bragg wrote on Saturday: “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.
DeSantis is seen as a likely candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and he would have to square off against Trump in the GOP primary. Trump announced his 2024 White House bid last November, shortly after the midterm elections.
Read on: Ron DeSantis skips CPAC, says Republicans act like ‘potted plants’ when facing ‘woke ideology’
