House Speaker Kevin McCarthy slams NY DA’s ‘outrageous abuse of power’ in Trump porn star probe

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has branded the case against Donald Trump over hush money paid to Stormy Daniels an ‘outrageous abuse of power’ as senior Republicans responded to the former president’s claim he’ll be arrested within days.

McCarthy labeled Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose team is leading the probe, a ‘radical DA who violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump’. Trump claims he’ll be charged on Tuesday and has urged Americans to protest against the decision.

McCarthy said: ‘I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.’

Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, also issued a statement that labeled the possibility of charges against Trump as ‘disgraceful’.

She said: ‘This is unAmerican and the radical left has reached a dangerous new low of third world countries. Knowing they cannot beat President Trump at the ballot box, the radical left will now follow the lead of socialist dictators and reportedly arrest President Trump.’

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, have led GOP anger at the possibility Trump will be charged in the Stormy Daniels case within days

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he’s ordered an investigation into whether 

Senator Lindsey Graham predicted on Saturday that charges against Trump will only help his presidential campaign.

‘The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America,’ Graham said at Saturday’s Palmetto Family Council Vision ’24 presidential forum.

‘I don’t think that’s the right approach,’ Graham told DailyMail.com after his appearance in North Charleston. ‘I think what he should do is fight this in the court of law. He’s going to win. This is an overreach by the Manhattan prosecutor.’

‘I think it’s going to help him politically,’ the South Carolina Republican reiterated. 

Trump would become the first former president in history to be charged with a crime if prosecutors take the extraordinary step of indicting him. But some legal experts say the case is unlikely to succeed. 

Trump and his supporters have railed against the inquiry and labeled it a political witch hunt designed to prevent his attempt at reelection in 2024. 

Mike Pence, who was Trump’s Vice President but has been fiercely critical of Trump since he left the White House, said he was ‘like many Americans… taken aback’ at the news charges will be brought within days.

Pence told SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday: ‘You have literally a Democratic part that’s literally dismantled the criminal justice system in [New York], undercut the NYPD, and this is what the Manhattan DA says is their top priority?

‘It reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax.’

Mike Pence, who was Vice President in Trump’s White House, said the case ‘reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax’

Senator Lindsey Graham told DailyMail.com that the Daniels case was ‘an overreach by the Manhattan prosecutor’ and added ‘I think it’s going to help [Trump] politically’

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Rudy Giuliani, the former attorney for New York’s Southern District and Trump’s former personal lawyer, said: ‘Bragg’s indictment of President Trump for a created crime is the final straw in Bragg’s destruction of the reputation of the foremost DAs’ office in the United States.

‘Bought and paid for the by thy man who despises American nationalism, George Soros.’

A Trump spokesman said: ‘There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA’s office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.

‘President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!’ 

Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, said the case was ‘politically popular’ but ‘legally pathetic’.

Trump could be charged with falsifying business records in relation to payments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty to using campaign finances in relation to Daniels. The former president could also faces charges linked to violations of election law. 

Turley told DailyMail.com: ‘I am not confident that Bragg can bring this case under the statute of limitations.

‘However, if he can shoehorn the federal charge into a state case, he still faces considerable challenges for a conviction. This is a notoriously difficult theory to prosecute, though this is the best jury pool that a prosecutor could hope for.’

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Trump, pictured on January 6 shortly before the Capitol riots broke out, has called on his supporters to protest his imminent indictment

Trump’s call for demonstrations are similar to his rallying cry for protests against his loss in the 2020 presidential election, which he claims was rigged. Pictured: Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of Trump after they stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021

Federal prosecutors reportedly did not consider charging Trump over the payments while he was still in office because of Justice Department guidance that a sitting president can’t be indicted.

They did look again at the matter after he left the White House, but opted against seeking an indictment because the issue seemed ‘trivial and outdated’ following the January 6 riots and scrutiny around Trump’s role in stirring up that, a book from CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said.

Law enforcement officials are beefing up security around New York County’s Supreme Court amid the expected announcement of criminal charges.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will meet today to discuss how to handle the announcement of Trump’s indictment and arrest.

Officials are also braced for demonstrations which could turn violent after Trump’s  provocative call for Americans to ‘protest, protest, protest’ as he raged online about the legal case.