Stephanopoulos Goes Crazy After Trump Attorney Points Out the Obvious About Manhattan Verdict
Hell hath no fury like a liberal reminded of the blatantly obvious.
On Thursday, former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the so-called hush money case in New York City.
While the case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, President Joe Biden and his administration never discouraged the Democrat from bringing the dubious charges, nor did they shy away from taking political advantage of them. One of his former Department of Justice officials even spearheaded the prosecution.
But mention that Biden’s fingerprints are all over this one, if not perhaps in directly prosecuting his primary political opposition, and watch former Bill Clinton press secretary and current ABC News apparatchik George Stephanopoulos have a meltdown.
The meltdown came during Trump attorney Will Scharf’s appearance on Sunday’s edition of “This Week,” where Scharf noted that the Stormy Daniels “hush money” matter was “called the zombie case” before Trump was charged with it last year.
“It sat and sat and sat. It could have been brought at any point after 2020,” Scharf said.
“And then suddenly, when President Trump announced his campaign for president, it was dusted off, rushed in front of a grand jury and then rushed into court,” he continued.
“You want to talk about the politicization of the legal system, I mean this is Exhibit A,” the Trump attorney said. “It’s absolutely unprecedented in American history. It’s not the way that our campaigns are supposed to be run. We contest elections at the ballot box, not in the courts in this country.”
Stephanopoulos noted that this was “true” but said that America has never “had a former president or presidential candidate facing the kind of charges that the president faced because of his own activities. And, of course, the attorney general in Manhattan has nothing to do with the Department of Justice.”
“I vehemently disagree that the district attorney in New York was not politically motivated here, and I vehemently disagree that President Biden and his political allies aren’t up their necks in this prosecution,” Scharf said. “I think the fact that the Biden campaign –”
Aaand meltdown in three, two, one …
“There’s no evidence here of that, sir!” Stephanopoulos said. “There’s no — there’s not — I’m not going to let you continue to say that. There’s just zero evidence of that.”
I mean, except for the evidence of that, which Scharf laid out when he could get a word in edgewise.
“Well, how about the fact that Matthew Colangelo was standing — was standing over Alvin Bragg’s shoulder when he announced this verdict?” Scharf said, referring to the former DOJ official hired by Bragg’s office.
“I mean, Colangelo was the No. 3 official in the Biden Department of Justice who suddenly disappears and shows up as an assistant district attorney, right as Trump’s case in New York starts to proceed. You want to talk about political –”
“After the decision was made there –,” Stephanopoulos said, continuing to interrupt.
“You want to talk about political coordination, George, it’s right there in front of you,” Scharf said.
“This has nothing to do — this has nothing to do — no, it’s not. This has nothing to do with President Biden,” Stephanopoulos, a bit discomposed, said. “Do you want to answer the question about the sentencing process or not?”
“I completely disagree that this has nothing to do with President Biden,” the Trump attorney said, adding, “With respect to sentencing, as I said before, we’re going to vigorously challenge this case on appeal.”
Don’t let ’em see you sweat, George.
Now, let’s point out that the involvement of Colangelo alone would be enough to throw this into question.
The fact that one of the top officials at the DOJ — who was previously paid for political consulting by the Democratic National Committee in 2018, as Fox News noted — would join Bragg’s team and help lead the prosecution of Trump is beyond unseemly.
The fact he was standing behind Bragg during the news conference in which the Manhattan DA gloated about the verdict wasn’t a good look, either:
There he is, Matthew Colangelo, former DNC political consultant for who left his job as third-ranking official in Biden’s DOJ in December 2022 to take a lesser job in Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office as senior counsel in the criminal case against Trump. https://t.co/n0A2y5XeWz pic.twitter.com/74dOZY1c4Q
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) May 30, 2024
This, unsurprisingly, wasn’t the only thing that looked problematic, however.
If there’s “no evidence” that the Biden administration was at least cheering on a politicized prosecution brought by a rising Democrat, for instance, why did the administration hold a news conference outside the Manhattan courthouse while the trial was going on — bringing out Robert De Niro as a rather ludicrous surrogate for the occasion?
Pure desperation. The Biden campaign is pulling all the stops to turn things around. This press conference outside of Trump’s trial is a clown show. pic.twitter.com/8FnBLFuMxG
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 28, 2024
HAHAHA OMG.
The Biden campaign is holding an urgent press conference at the Trump trial.
Their expert? Robert De Niro in an N95.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 28, 2024
And no less than the president of the United States — the same one who’s bragged about circumventing Supreme Court decisions and who has chastised the high court during his State of the Union speeches for daring to hand down decisions with which he disagreed — insisted that the American people and Trump’s campaign must respect the jury’s verdict.
“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said during Friday remarks at the White House.
“Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years, and it literally is the cornerstone of America,” he added. “The justice system should be respected. And we should never allow anyone to tear it down.”
But, please, don’t talk about the Biden administration improperly using the trial as a political tool, or else you’ll make George Stephanopoulos freak out.
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