Steve Scalise: Indictment of Donald Trump ‘Clearest Example’ of Democrats Weaponizing Government Against Their Opponents

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said in a statement on Thursday that the indictment of former President Donald Trump was the “clearest example” of Democrats using the government to target their political opponents.

Scalise, the number two Republican in the House, said in a written statement, “The sham New York indictment of President Donald Trump is one of the clearest examples of extremist Democrats weaponizing government to attack their political opponents. Outrageous.”

Scalise released his reaction as a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump on Thursday for “his role in paying hush money to a porn star,” according to the New York Times. This will make Trump the first former president to face criminal charges after leaving office.

Trump, in reaction to the news, referred to the indictment as “political persecution” at the highest level in history:

From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats – the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country – have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement,” Trump said in a statement responding to the news he has been indicted. “You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this. The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference. Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on.

He added, “This is how Bragg spends his time!”