“Look, I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just, I can’t speak to that. But what I can speak to is if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to do something about pornstar hush-money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office and I think that that’s fundamentally wrong,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis made these remarks after Trump claimed he would be arrested on Tuesday in connection with a $130,000 payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels on his behalf. Other presidential contenders, including Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy, also weighed in on the case. DeSantis criticized the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other progressive DAs, calling them "Soros-funded" and accusing them of weaponizing their offices to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety. He also claimed that prosecutors have been ignoring crimes happening every single day in their jurisdictions while pursuing a political agenda.
Prosecutors have focused on a potential misdemeanor offense by Trump, namely falsifying business records, but that offense may be upgraded to a Class E felony if they can prove that a second crime was concealed or committed. DeSantis, who has acted to remove a "Soros district attorney" before, explained that he knows how to deal with them. Last year, DeSantis suspended Hillsborough County state attorney Andrew Warren, who had pledged not to enforce a number of state laws including a 15-week abortion ban and prohibitions on sex changes for minors. Warren has taken DeSantis to court for the removal, and the case is ongoing. In conclusion, DeSantis criticized the Manhattan DA's prosecution of Trump, claiming it is politically charged, while accusing progressive DAs of ignoring crimes happening every day and pursuing a political agenda at the expense of the rule of law and public safety.