House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) attended former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial on Tuesday as a show of support for the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
“President Trump is innocent of these charges,” Johnson said outside the courthouse on Tuesday, adding that he was “disgusted” Trump had to endure the trial.
The Speaker said that his appearance at the courthouse was a decision he made on his own and that he came to support Trump, whom he called a friend.
Johnson wasn’t the only high-profile Republican to flock to New York on Tuesday, as Axios reported that Trump VP contenders Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
On Monday, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) attended Trump’s trial, the first of his potential running mates to do so.
“I do have a lot of surrogates, and they are speaking very beautifully,” Trump said Tuesday morning before entering the courthouse. “They come from all over Washington, and they’re highly respected, and they think this is the biggest scam they’ve ever seen.”
While outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Johnson argued that Trump was being forced into the “sham trial” so that he wasn’t on the campaign trail.
“The people are losing faith right now in this country, in our institutions,” Johnson said. “They’re losing faith in our system of justice. And the reason for that is because they see it being abused as it is being done here in New York.”
He also claimed that the trial was being conducted by partisans and said that congressional Republicans were taking action to “rein in” Special Counsel Jack Smith in Trump’s classified documents case.
Trump has continued to allege that Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing his case, is corrupt and should recuse himself. Johnson echoed this in a broader remark to reporters.
“It’s impossible for anybody to deny that looks at this objectively that the judicial system in our country has been weaponized against President Trump,” Johnson said.
Despite reporters asking several questions, Johnson did not answer anything thrown his way.