US House Speaker Mike Johnson assailed the US judicial system on Tuesday, May 14, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court with Donald Trump and using his powerful position to attack the hush money case against the former president as an illegitimate "sham."
It was a remarkable moment in modern US politics: The House speaker turning his Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the US government and a cornerstone of democracy.
Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system "corrupt."
Outside the New York courthouse, he decried "this ridiculous prosecution that is not about justice." He said, "It's all about politics."
Johnson did not enter the courtroom where Trump is on trial, departing the scene in a waiting car following his remarks to reporters.
The speaker is leading a growing list of Republican lawmakers who are criticizing the US judicial system as they rally to Trump's side, appearing at the courthouse to defend the party's presumptive presidential nominee. Trump is accused of having arranged secret payments to a porn actress to hide negative stories during his successful 2016 campaign for president.
With Trump stuck in court and barred by a judge's gag order from criticizing witnesses or certain elements of the case, Johnson and the lawmakers are taking it upon themselves to attack the proceedings, now in a fourth week of witness testimony. They're using the trial as a de facto campaign stop as they work to return the former president to the White House.
In portraying the case against Trump as politically motivated, the Republicans are also laying the groundwork to dismiss its significance, should the jury convict, and for potential challenges to the fall election, a rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Johnson was a chief architect of Trump's efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential results ahead of the January 6, 2021, mob assault on the US Capitol, and last week he called the hush money trial and the other election-year cases against Trump a "borderline criminal conspiracy."
"It is election interference," Johnson said Tuesday, insisting he was appearing on his own to support a friend. "And the American people are not going to let this stand."
Riding Trump's coattails
In the short term, the Republicans' presence at the courthouse and comments critical of the process have let Trump and his allies amplify their message without risking another explicit violation of the gag order. Trump's attorneys have challenged the gag order as unconstitutional, but an appeals court upheld it on Tuesday.
Johnson made an appearance with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago club last month to announce new House legislation to require proof of citizenship for voting, echoing Trump's baseless claims that Democrats are abetting immigrants entering the US illegally to swing elections – another potential route for Republican challenges to the 2024 election.
There isn't any indication that noncitizens vote in significant numbers in federal elections or that they will in the future.
And Johnson joined Trump on stage for the Republican National Committee's gala at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, praising the presumptive presidential nominee and saying House Republicans fully expect to ride Trump's coattails to their own re-elections to keep the majority hold on the chamber.
Johnson has been using the pulpit of the speaker's office in Washington to attack the US judicial system, criticizing the courts as biased against the former president, claiming the case is politically motivated by Democrats and insisting Trump has done nothing wrong.
The speaker has demurred when asked if the 2020 election was legitimate, and in a departure from the tradition of trust and adherence in US election systems, Johnson and other Republicans have hedged when asked if they will accept the election results of 2024.