Moderate GOP Susan Collins Criticizes ‘Political Underpinnings’ of Trump Trial, Expects ‘Protracted Appeals Process’

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a moderate who has split with former President Donald Trump in the past, joined the ranks of his supporters Wednesday after the jury in the Manhattan business records trial returned a guilty verdict.

She said in a statement:

It is fundamental to our American system of justice that the government prosecutes cases because of alleged criminal conduct regardless of who the defendant happens to be. In this case the opposite has happened. The district attorney, who campaigned on a promise to prosecute Donald Trump, brought these charges precisely because of who the defendant was rather than because of any specified criminal conduct. The political underpinnings of this case further blur the lines between the judicial system and the electoral system, and this verdict likely will be the subject of a protracted appeals process.

Collins’s criticism of the trial showed that even moderate Republicans have been turned off by the political persecution of Trump, and the verdict is unlikely to turn moderate Republicans against Trump in itself.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is also no fan of Trump’s, also expressed criticism of the trial after the verdict, dashing the hopes of Never Trumpers that GOP leaders would turn against the former president.

McConnell posted on X that the charges should have never been brought “in the first place,” and he expected them to be overturned on appeal.

As Breitbart News reported, the jury in Trump’s business records trial in Manhattan found him guilty on all 34 counts.

The jury arrived to the decision on day two of deliberations on Thursday.