Speaker Johnson: Supreme Court ‘should step in’ on Trump appeal

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday that the Supreme Court “should step in” on former President Trump’s appeal following the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s conviction on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money case. 

“I do believe the Supreme Court should step in,” Johnson said during his appearance on Fox News’s “Fox and Friends.”

He later added that the justices on the nation’s highest court, “many” of whom he knows personally, are “deeply concerned about that, as we are. So, I think they will set this straight, but it’s gonna take a while.” 

Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony charges Thursday in Manhattan by a 12-person jury.

The presumptive GOP nominee was convicted of falsifying business records to conceal alleged affairs during his 2016 run for president. Judge Juan Merchan said the sentencing hearing will be July 11, just four days before Trump is expected to be officially named as the party’s nominee at the Republican National Committee’s convention.

The former president has to be sentenced first, and then he and his legal team are expected to appeal the case. Johnson said the developments are “unprecedented” and undermining the public’s trust in the justice system.

The House leader’s comments regarding the justices stepping in come as the Supreme Court’s most conservative members have faced scrutiny over whether they can impartially consider decisions regarding Trump and the 2020 election.

Justice Samuel Alito was criticized after an initial report in The New York Times showed an upside-down American flag, a symbol of the movement that argues the election was stolen from Trump, being flowed outside of his home in Virginia.

Later, an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, another symbol associated with the conservative movement, was seen at his beach home in New Jersey, the Times reported. Alito has been called on to recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He has refused, saying the facts do not “do not meet the conditions for recusal.” 

Justice Clarence Thomas, another conservative justice, has also faced calls to recuse himself from Jan. 6 cases due to his wife, Ginni, taking part in political activities seen as leading up to the attack on the Capitol.