Americans are seeing Donald Trump's ongoing trial in New York City as a "sham" and it marks a "disturbing moment in American history," Rep. Eric Burlison, who was in court last week to support the former president, said on Newsmax Saturday.
"It's my hope that Donald Trump is acquitted of these charges and that we can go about fixing the judicial system and bringing it back to the sanity that it is," the Missouri Republican said on Newsmax's "Saturday Report." "You have a lot of legal scholars that are looking at this and seeing it for the sham that it is."
Trump has also "given up so much for this country," said Burlison.
"He didn't have to do this," the congressman said. "He could have been happy living in the private sector, but he has sacrificed so much for this nation."
But in New York City, there is District Attorney Alvin Bragg, "who is using judicial gymnastics to create a crime" with the charges accusing Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide payments made to adult film performer Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
"This would normally be a misdemeanor," said Burlison. "He's elevated it to a felony charge by making references that he was trying to hide some other crime, but he's not bringing forward any other crime. He's convinced the judge that he does not have to prove to the jury that there was another actual crime that Trump was trying to avoid."
Moreover, Burlison said, presiding Judge Juan Merchan is "sitting in the courtroom, repeatedly sides with the prosecution against President Trump, and it's clear that he's completely biased."
Merchan, he added, "has donated money out of his own pocket to [President] Joe Biden, and his daughter makes a lot of money profiting on raising money for the Democratic Party."
Burlison said he hopes there are "some smart people on that jury" so that there will either be a hung jury or Trump will be acquitted.
"But I'll tell you, if the judge has any say in it, I've seen reports that he's going to instruct the jury on the side of Bragg that they don't have to know about any other crime that's been committed, and that's disturbing to me," the congressman said. "The judge is clearly tipping the scales of Lady Justice."
Meanwhile, Trump made the right decision by not taking the stand, said Burlison.
"I'm not sure if it was a fair trial, though he wouldn't have had to produce any kind of witnesses for his defense because the case against him was just absolutely weak," he said. "In any other courtroom, there's no way that he would be charged."
Burlison also commented on Trump's rally in the Bronx and said that the former president "definitely has a lot of supporters" in New York City.
"When I was there, when we were in the motorcade, we were interacting with law enforcement, and they would give us a quiet nod or fist bump to let us know that they are supporting the former president," he said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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