Former President Trump was reportedly indicted on criminal charges in New York on Thursday in connection with hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign, making him the first former or sitting president to face criminal charges. Here’s what lawmakers are saying as news of the indictment breaks:
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
Waters celebrated that “sometimes justice works” in a Twitter post with the hashtag “TrumpIndictment.”
“SO Trump finally got indicted! I predicted he would and I predicted that Stormy Daniels would get him!” Waters wrote.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)
Greene, a Trump ally and one of several outspoken critics of the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s role in the hush money case, said she was giving a speech in Gettysburg, Pa., the site of a battle that became a turning point in the Civil War.
“The irony of standing on the battleground when I found out President Trump has been indicted is profound. My President is innocent and the only one standing in the way of these modern day tyrants, just like our founding fathers did, to protect each of us from evil,” Greene wrote.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.)
Moskowitz had a more somber reaction, writing on Twitter that “this is not a moment to celebrate.”
“This is a terrible moment for the country,” he said of the news that Trump has become the first president hit with criminal charges.
“But no one is above the law. Those lock her up chants that people were chanting like hyenas in a stadium around the country were never funny, perhaps they now understand why,” he said, in apparent reference to the chants against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)
“The indictment of a former president is a somber day for America. It’s also time to put faith in our judicial system. Donald Trump deserves every protection provided to him by the Constitution and due process under our rule of law,” Swalwell said in a statement.
The California Democrat called on both parties to condemn Trump’s calls for his supporters to protest the indictment.
“As this case progresses let us neither celebrate nor destroy. As the former president continues to call for violence in his name, let all of us, as Democrats and Republicans, condemn his efforts to incite. We are better than that and justice benefits all of us,” he said.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
“Outrageous,” Jordan wrote in his single-word comment on Twitter.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)
Gosar said he stands “proudly” with the former president in the face of the indictment.
“This is third world politics from a Soros DA who needs to be investigated. This is clear and brazen political persecution,” Gosar wrote on Twitter, joining many in the GOP who have argued that the case is politically motivated.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)
Tillis said the indictment against Trump “doesn’t pass the smell test” because the Department of Justice “already looked into the facts and decided there was no case to be made against President Trump.”
He knocked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), calling him “laser-focused on pursuing a politicized prosecution of a former president.”
“Politics should never tip the scales of justice, and Congress has every right to investigate the conduct and decision-making of the Manhattan D.A.’s office,” Tillis said.
Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.)
“This case should be tried in the courtroom, not in partisan committee hearings, and definitely not in the streets,” Peters said on Twitter.
“It is a somber and unprecedented moment in our history, but also precisely what our judicial system was intended to do — deliver justice for ALL under the law,” he said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)
Boebert also echoed GOP calls that the case is politically motivated.
“BREAKING: Trump has been indicted! This is another political witch hunt targeting the people’s President,” she wrote on Twitter.
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.)
Santos said that he is “deeply disturbed” by the reports of the indictment against Trump and took a swipe at Bragg, accusing him of “executing political witch hunts.”
“Weaponizing the justice system to target a political rival is a clear danger to our country and democracy,” Santos said.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio)
“No person — not even a former President — is above the law,” Beatty wrote.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.)
Walberg said House Republicans “will not tolerate” the Manhattan prosecutor’s case against Trump.
“Activist prosecutors like Alvin Bragg try to create their own soft-on-crime laws, fueling the crime wave. It’s disgraceful that violent crime is acceptable to Bragg, but he’s willing to overreach with prosecutorial discretion and go after rivals. @HouseGOP will not tolerate it,” he wrote in a Tweet.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas)
“May justice be served, finally,” Castro wrote, sharing a link to news of the indictment.