DeSantis puts Trump in trouble by breaking his silence on the case of alleged hush payments

() — Breaking his silence on Donald Trump’s legal troubles, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday criticized the Manhattan district attorney who is seeking to bring charges against the former president and vowed his office would not get involved if the matter came to fruition. state.

DeSantis, a rising rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was nonetheless a long way from coming out in support of the former president. Instead, he appeared to mock the situation Trump finds himself in as he attempts a political comeback and a third campaign for the White House. A grand jury is in the final phase of determining whether Trump should face charges over an alleged payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels related to an alleged affair between the two.

“I don’t know what’s behind paying hush money to a porn star to make sure she doesn’t say anything about some kind of alleged affair,” DeSantis said as laughter broke out at a news conference in Panama City, Florida. . “I just can’t talk about it.”

And then DeSantis added: “I have real business to deal with here in the state of Florida.”

The derogatory comments quickly traveled across the state to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump went while awaiting word on the New York grand jury’s findings. His allies immediately began attacking DeSantis on social media, suggesting that he would pay a political price for not acknowledging that Republicans are rallying around Trump amid mounting legal threats surrounding him.

Trump responded in a statement he posted on his social media site, Truth Social, with a series of personal attacks on DeSantis.

“Ron DeSanctimonious (sic) will probably run into FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND FALSE STORIES at some point in the future, when he is older, wiser and better known, being unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even by ‘underage’ classmates. of age’ (or possibly by a man!). I’m sure he’ll want to fight those misfits just like me!” Trump wrote.

As part of his post, Trump also shared a photo suggesting DeSantis had behaved inappropriately with teenage girls while teaching history in Georgia in his early 20s, an image the former president had previously shared on social media attacking the president. Florida governor.

Monday’s episode is illustrative of the increasingly tense rivalry between two of the Republican Party’s biggest stars as they battle for party supremacy, a rivalry made more awkward by their proximity in the Sunshine State. Trump suggested that his arrest could happen soon, and if he is in Florida at the time, it will require a coordinated effort by police in DeSantis’s state.

DeSantis said he is not aware of any deals with local law enforcement regarding Trump, saying he had “no interest in getting involved in some kind of circus.”

DeSantis’ belated remarks stand in stark contrast to the forceful defense he offered on Trump’s behalf last August, when federal authorities seized documents from the former president’s Palm Beach estate. Just hours after the raid, DeSantis took to Twitter to call the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago “another escalation in the arming of federal agencies against the regime’s political opponents, while the likes of Hunter Biden are treated with gloves.” of silk”.

But this time there was no such message from DeSantis, who had remained silent for days amid reports that a New York grand jury was interviewing witnesses, and has avoided speaking of Trump amid escalating attacks from the United States. former president and his allies. Instead, he chose to hold events last week focused on helping the victims of Hurricane Ian and the pandemic. He also posted a photo from the World Baseball Classic with the Miami Marlins mascot.

Over the weekend, as other Republicans criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, for filing charges in a case dating back to the 2016 election, Trump allies launched a coordinated campaign of lobbying for DeSantis to speak out in defense of the former president.

“Thank you Vice President @Mike_Pence and @VivekGRamaswamy for pointing out how radical left Democrats are trying to divide our country in the name of partisan politics,” Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller wrote on Twitter. “Radio silence from Governor @RonDeSantisFL and Ambassador @NikkiHaley.”

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote in a tweet on Sunday: “Pay attention to which Republicans immediately spoke out against this corrupt BS (editor’s note: lie) and who stood by and waited to see in which way the wind was blowing.

MAGA, Inc sent several emails tracking which Republicans had commented on the possible criminal charges and criticizing DeSantis for “remaining silent.” Trump allies acknowledged that this was a concerted effort to force DeSantis to weigh in on the matter, believing that he would have to offer support to Trump.

When DeSantis finally spoke out on Monday, it was during an off-topic press conference on central bank digital currencies, a concern among some conservatives but hardly the topic of the day, given the revelations about Trump’s legal case. He did not address Trump’s legal situation until he was asked by someone from the Florida Standard, a conservative website friendly to DeSantis.

DeSantis echoed other criticisms of Bragg, accusing the Democrat of seeking charges against Trump for political reasons. He compared Bragg to local Tampa state attorney Andrew Warren, whom DeSantis fired in a controversy last year over his politics, linking the two to George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire and progressive donor who is often in the center of conservative conspiracies.

Former President Donald Trump (Credit: Brett Rojo/USA TODAY/ Reuters/File)

“If you have a prosecutor who is ignoring the crimes that happen every day in your jurisdiction, and you choose to go back many, many years to try to use something about hush money payments for porn stars, that’s an example of the seeking to push the political agenda and bomb the opposition, and I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” DeSantis said.

But DeSantis also seemed to dismiss Trump’s pursuit of Bragg as a minor concern compared to issues surrounding crime in the city.

“It’s wrong, but the real victims are ordinary New Yorkers, ordinary Americans in all these different jurisdictions who are victimized every day because of the reckless political agenda that Soros prosecutors bring to their work,” he said. “They ignore crime and empower criminals.”

‘s Kit Maher contributed to this report.