Rep. Byron Donalds: Manhattan DA Should Go After People ‘Perpetrating Crimes’ Against New Yorkers Instead of Playing ‘Gotcha Politics’

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should focus on prosecuting people who are “actually perpetrating crimes against the people of New York today” instead of playing “gotcha politics” by going after former President Donald Trump.

When asked whether protests against the impending indictment of Trump for allegedly paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 should be peaceful, Donalds said, “Of course, and I think of course every protest should be peaceful. We have never argued for anything different than that. I think if there are Americans who choose to protest, they should do it peacefully, but let’s be very clear. 

“What Alvin Bragg and his office is attempting to do is use essentially an investigation that the DOJ looked at, the FEC looked at. They did not bring charges. They said there is nothing really to do with this. They moved on, and he is trying, to quote legal experts, shoehorn some legal theory to go get Trump. That’s the essence of political prosecution,” he said.

“That’s what’s happening right now in New York, which I think is wrong. He should be focused on the people who are actually perpetrating crimes against the people of New York today as opposed to playing gotcha politics,” the congressman said.

Donalds said House Republicans should not wait for an indictment before holding hearings on Bragg’s targeting of the former president.

“No, I don’t think so, because even if you have a situation where you have a prosecutor who is really now living outside the bounds of even his prosecutorial authorities and abilities, that’s something that yeah, judiciary should look at that, oversight committee should be able to look at that,” the congressman said.

“We don’t want to have a system of justice in our country that is politically motivated. If you are going to pull out the payments to Stormy Daniels through Michael Cohen, and now say that there is some hidden felony nobody knows about, and you are trying to raise the stakes to bring that in, yeah, Congress should look at that, because we don’t want an unequal application of the law,” he said.

“We don’t want a law basically to just point at one person. That’s not our system of justice in America. That is, I believe, under congressional purview and chairmans Jordan and Comer expressly stated that in their letter there that they released yesterday,” Donalds said.

When asked how you can investigate if you don’t know what the charges are yet, the congressman said, “This is why we are asking for simple documentation about the communications between former members of the New York D.A.’s office and what they are going on now with right now. 

“Were federal monies used associated to help this investigation move forward? Those are simple requests of information that we’re making at this point. We will look at that response and make a determination from there,” he said.

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