McConnell, GOP allies steer clear of defending Trump on indictment

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and his deputies are steering clear of defending former President Trump from felony charges brought by the Justice Department, signaling a deep split within the GOP over how to handle the former president’s legal problems. 

While House Republican leaders and the leading Republican candidates for president have rallied behind Trump and attacked the Justice Department for targeting him unfairly, key Republican senators are reluctant to shield the former president from charges that he willfully mishandled top-secret documents and risked national security. 

GOP senators say the 37-count indictment brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith is more serious and more credible than the 34 felony charges Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) brought against Trump in March.  

“There are very serious allegations in the indictment, and I think the Justice Department — as they attempt to prove their case — they’ve got a high burden of proof to convince people that they’re handling this fairly and as they would for any other elected official,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said. 

Asked if he viewed the special prosecutor’s case as more credible than the charges brought forth by the Manhattan attorney general, Thune replied: “Oh yeah.” 

“That one was clearly, in my view, politically motivated, and the facts were pretty thin and the law was actually pretty thin in that case,” he said.  

By contrast, he said the special prosecutor’s indictment is “serious” and “very detailed.” 

“You’re talking about national security secrets, classified information,” he said.  

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to the Senate leadership team, offered a blunt assessment when asked about the charges that Trump violated the Espionage Act and conspired to obstruct justice.  

“It’s not good,” he told reporters.  

The details and photographic evidence included in the indictment have added to the discomfort of Republican senators, especially those like McConnell, who view safeguarding the nation’s military capabilities as among their most important responsibilities.  

The Justice Department included photos of boxes of secret documents stored haphazardly around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, including the image of boxes stacked up in a bathroom, another of documents scattered across a storage room floor and a third of boxes stacked in a ballroom, where potentially hundreds or even thousands of people could have had access to them.  

Republican senators worry the constant controversies swirling around Trump, and his pugnacious response to his critics, will make it very difficult for him to win a general election if he clinches the GOP presidential nomination next year.  

“I think his unwillingness to appeal to voters beyond his base makes it unlikely that he could win a general election,” Cornyn said.  

McConnell made no mention of the indictment when he spoke on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, and he did not respond to reporters’ questions as he walked to and from the Senate floor for his opening speech. 

Several GOP senators are warning that the move by other Republicans to rush to Trump’s side may be a mistake.  

“The charges in this case are quite serious and cannot be casually dismissed,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in a statement. “Mishandling classified documents is a federal crime because it can expose national secrets, as well as the sources and methods they were obtained through.”

Murkowski told reporters Monday that the federal charges appear stronger than the case against Trump in New York and warned that having a nominee for president under indictment could spell disaster for the GOP in 2024.  

“I don’t think that it is good for the Republican Party to have a nominee and …. the frontrunner under a series of indictments,” she said.  

Murkowski declined to comment on Republicans who have rallied behind Trump but explained her own position: “I looked at what’s been laid out there and I think it’s serious stuff.” 

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said the “allegations are serious and, if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest, such as withholding defensive weapons from Ukraine for political reasons and failing to defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection,” referring to incidents that led to Trump getting twice impeached. 

Romney expressed exasperation over the situation Monday. 

“I’m increasingly angry as I think about it. The country is going to go through angst and turmoil and that could have been avoided if President Trump would have just turned the documents in when he was asked to do so. All he had to do when the subpoena came was give the documents back and he wouldn’t have been indicted and the country wouldn’t have gone through what it’s going through. This was entirely avoidable if he just turned in the documents. Why didn’t he?” he said.  

Both Murkowski and Romney have voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges, though Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump over his actions related to Ukraine. 

Other senior Senate Republicans are also keeping their distance from Trump.

“I’m late for this meeting and I’m just going to run to the meeting,” Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committees, told reporters as he walked quickly through the Capitol when asked about the national security implications laid out by the indictment.  

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairwoman Joni Ernst (Iowa) told a Washington Post reporter: “Let’s talk about ‘Roast and Ride’ and how wonderful it was,” referring to the fundraising event she held with Republican presidential hopefuls earlier this month in Des Moines. 

Ernst said too much classified information is leaking out of secure confines but also criticized the Justice Department for indicting Trump but not high-profile Democrats such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Biden. 

“I think across the board, we’ve seen many instances of classified documents getting out into areas where they shouldn’t be, but it seems there are two systems of justice here, one for President Trump and one for everybody else who’s had classified documents,” she said. 

The indictment gives political ammunition to Democrats who say Trump’s alleged crimes go to “the heart and soul” of the nation’s defense.  

“The indictment makes it clear that the information involved here was not casual, it went to the heart and soul of our defense of the United States, in terms of nuclear confrontations, maps, prepared invasion plans,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who also serves on the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. 

Durbin said he was “concerned” that Aileen Cannon, a federal district judge who was nominated by Trump, may have a role in presiding over Trump’s case in Southern District of Florida. 

“I am concerned. She was a Trump appointee, she was overruled by the appellate court … she’s back in charge of this case again. This is an historic case,” he said.

“I still hope that she really does her very best to be neutral and a good judge,” he added.