Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday that the “hush-money” case in which former president Donald Trump was convicted only occurred because of Trump’s aspirations to return to the White House.
“If his name was not Donald Trump and if he wasn’t running for president — I’m the former AG of New York — I’m telling you that case never would’ve been brought,” the former governor, who resigned after facing a slew of sexual-harassment allegations, told Bill Maher on Real Time.
Forty-seven percent of Americans, according to a recent ABC News/Ipsos survey, believe Trump’s conviction on 34 counts in relation to his payments to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 was politically motivated.
Cuomo told Maher that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg should not have brought the case against Trump, arguing that, in doing so, Bragg has decreased public faith in the criminal-justice system.
“New Yorkers said — 66 percent said — the justice system is politicized. And there’s nobody in New York who likes Trump,” Cuomo said. “And still, 66 percent said the justice system is politicized. That’s why I think he’s not paying the same price for these verdicts, because they believe it’s political.”
He described the “real threat to democracy” — referring to President Joe Biden’s habit of calling the 2024 election as hinging on the state of American democracy — as “when you have this country believing you’re playing politics with the justice system and you’re trying to put people in jail or convict them for political reasons.”
Some recent polling appears to bolster Cuomo’s claims. Forty percent of respondents to a June Politico/Ipsos poll — constituting a plurality — said the “hush-money” conviction will not impact their vote in November.
While Trump’s head-to-head numbers against Biden have declined since the conviction, his legal tribulations spurred a massive wave in fundraising; he has since closed the financial gap between his campaign and that of Biden.