Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Thursday that there has not been “evidence of any crime whatsoever” in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
Cotton made the comment during an interview on CNN’s “News Central” when host Kate Bolduan pointed to a wave of Republican lawmakers showing up in court in solidarity with Trump.
“We’ve seen Republican lawmakers quite a lot of them coming to New York City to sit in on Donald Trump’s trial to show their support for him,” Bolduan noted, asking, “Do you think it’s important for anyone who wants to be VP to have to show up to this trial? I mean, do you think anyone do you think someone can get the job without it?”
In response, Cotton stated, “I turned in my law license 20 years ago and I haven’t seen inside of a courtroom since then and I don’t have any plans to do so in the future. I agree with what President Trump said. It’s important that we do our job as legislators in Washington, for instance making sure that we overturn Joe Biden’s de facto arms embargo and get Israel, the weapons it needs.”
“I also think they should be a moot question after today,” the lawmaker said further. “I know everyone is excited about the cross-examination by President Trump’s lawyers of Michael Cohen and notorious convicted liar. But what’s a bigger news today is that if the prosecution rest its case based on the evidence they’ve put forward, then this judge should redeem himself and all that erroneous rulings he has made so far by directing a verdict of not guilty against Donald Trump because there’s been no evidence of any crime whatsoever in this case. The trial should into de the prosecution rest its case.”
Cotton’s remarks follow the appearances of lawmakers including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) visited the Manhattan courthouse in a show of support for the Republican presumptive nominee.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who testified that Trump approved of a plan for him to make a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels with a promise of repayment, took the stand again. His testimony on Thursday came in the form of a cross-examination from Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche, who accused Cohen of lying in his testimony given his history of lying under oath, his shaky recollection of events pivotal to the case and his motivation to turn against his former boss.
Opinion | NY v Trump: Defense guts Bragg's star witness Cohen for doing what he does best https://t.co/9luxtCheNN
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Blanche played clips of Cohen talking about Trump last year. In one of the clips, the former attorney was heard saying, “I truly f–king hope that this man ends up in prison. You better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to my family.”
No court session was scheduled for Friday as Trump is to attend the graduation of his youngest son, Barron, in Florida.
