Congressman Michael Waltz, the man representing Flagler County and the surrounding area in the House of Representatives, sharply criticized the conviction of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts on Thursday. Trump was charged with falsifying business records to execute hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, and was found guilty on each count in his Manhattan trial.
Trump is the first president, sitting or former, to ever be convicted of a felony charge in United States history. Complicating things further is that Republican voters have nominated him for President for the third straight election, even as this and other legal cases loomed over Trump.
Waltz has an been ally of Trump’s for years, endorsing him in elections past and frequently criticizing Trump’s trials both in courts of law and the impeachment stage. This defense of Trump amidst his largest legal defeat yet is a continuation of the pair’s existing political relationship.
“The genie is out of the bottle,” Waltz said. “This trial was always about taking President Trump off the ballot because Biden has nothing else to run on.” He goes on to reference court rulings in Colorado and Maine that Trump is ineligible to appear on the presidential ballot due to the Constitution’s insurrection clause.
“They unleashed a politicized justice system against him,” Waltz continued. “This judge, jurisdiction, and jury instructions preordained President’s Trump’s legal fate. Americans see right through this and will continue to fight to elect him back to the White House!”
The charges issued by Waltz against Judge Juan Merchan and the New York state legal system are grave – that they’re being controlled by a political party to stifle the career of a politician. He provided no evidence of this assertion, but doubled down in a subsequent tweet Thursday evening.
“If political opponents can do this to the former president, they can do it to anyone,” he went on. “After today, you don’t just put your reputation on the line when you enter politics against the Democrats, you now put your freedom on the line.” Further spotlighting Waltz’s commentary is his former career as a U.S. Army Green Beret, one of the top special forces arms of America’s military. His experience in combat against foreign enemies carries weight for his supporters when he characterizes Democrats as domestic enemies – that is, persecutors of freedom against other Americans.
Judge Merchan was appointed to Family Court in the Bronx by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican mayor, and then to the New York Court of Claims by Democratic Governor David Paterson. He also presided over a 2022 case accusing the Trump Organization of tax fraud. The organization was convicted. In 2020 he donated $15 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, plus two $10 donations to voter outreach groups committed to progressive causes. Though Waltz did not invoke this activity directly in his response to the Trump conviction, the donations are often pointed to as evidence that Merchan is predisposed to rule against prominent Republican defendants.
