Fox News anchor and legal analyst Shannon Bream pushed back on an assertion made by Alina Habba, one of Donald Trump’s attorneys, that President Biden is responsible for the criminal charges the former president faces in New York.
“And Joe Biden unfortunately can’t really do anything in office,” Habba said as she joined Bream, the host of “Fox News Sunday” who was broadcasting for much of the afternoon from outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump’s trial is taking place. “So he’s got to use the same means as somebody who’s just trying to have a quick slip and fall and make money. And that is, frankly, what we’re seeing right now.
“This is exactly a Biden show because he’s got to distract the American people,” Habba continued.
“But the Biden administration is not responsible for this trial,” Bream interjected.
“How can you say the Biden administration is not responsible?” Habba shot back.
“It’s a state trial,” Bream explained. “It’s [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg. Whether you think there’s a political motive for him, it’s not connected to the DOJ. I mean, the feds passed on these election charges.”
After Habba suggested logs showing state officials in New York and Georgia visiting the White House were proof of political influence in Trump’s prosecution, Bream pushed back by saying, “The feds passed on these cases, is the point I’m making.”
Trump faces 34 charges in New York in connection with allegations that he falsified business records to conceal hush money payments just before the 2016 election to women who said they had affairs with him.
The former president has pleaded not guilty in the hush money case, and his political allies have repeatedly said that the charges against him are political and meant to keep him from winning a second term in the White House this fall.
A jury in New York began deliberating a verdict in the case on Wednesday morning.
Trump also faces two separate criminal cases over his efforts to remain in office after the 2020 election, as well as a federal case over his retention of White House records after the end of his term.