Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told MSNBC the indictment of former President Donald Trump is “no cause to celebrate” on MSNBC Thursday night.
Trump was indicted on 34 counts earlier in the day by a Manhattan grand jury.
“We have now arrived at defendant Trump, criminal defendant Trump,” Lawrence O’Donnell said on The Last Word. “And we are living now in a very perfectly consistent pattern in the history of American law. And that is, that every president in history who has ever paid off a porn star, has been charged with a crime.”
O’Donnell was referencing reports that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was examining whether Trump falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels in October 2016, right before Trump was elected.
Goldman pointed to the number of counts and said that suggests there’s more to the indictment than the Daniels angle.
Well, we assume that’s part of it, “Goldman said. “We still have not seen the indictment. It is reported to have 34 counts, which to my calculation, would be a lot more than just the conduct surrounding the Stormy Daniels payment.”
The congressman alluded to the wild characterizations being bandied about on the right in response to the indictment.
We don’t know the evidence and yet there are inflammatory accusations about partisanship and the political basis for these charges from people who have no idea what the charges are,” he said. “And that should tell you everything you need to know about what is motivating Donald Trump and his supporters.”
Goldman then said the indictment of a former president is not a reason for celebration.
“On the flip side, this is no cause to celebrate,” he continued. “This is a serious matter where, for the first time ever, a former president is indicted. We need to make sure that Donald Trump, like every defendant, gets the benefit of his constitutional rights. That is how our system has worked for nearly 250 years. And that is how it needs to continue to work – to make sure that we are following the rule of law, that no one is above the law, and that we are a government of laws and not men and especially, one man. And so, Donald Trump should have his day in court.”
