Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused the New York and Georgia grand jury investigations into former President Donald Trump of being politically motivated and part of a “cancer in our body politic.”
Cuomo, a Democrat who resigned in disgrace in 2021 amid sexual misconduct allegations, made the comments during an appearance this week on WABC 770 talk radio show “The Cats Roundtable.” The former governor told host John Catsimatidis that he “doesn’t understand” why Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was “putting such an emphasis” on Trump’s 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
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“You have a cynical public, they don’t believe anyone and when you start to see these prosecutors bring political cases, it just affirms everybody’s cynicism,” Cuomo said.
“I don’t believe a Democratic prosecutor just happens to be attacking a Republican. I don’t believe a Republican prosecutor just happens to be attacking a Democrat. I think it’s all politics, and I think that’s what the people of this country are saying,” he continued. “And I think it’s feeds the cynicism, and that’s the cancer in our body politic right now.”
Getting sarcastic, Cuomo added, “It’s a coincidence that Bragg goes after Trump and Tish James goes after Trump and Georgia goes after Trump. That’s all a coincidence.”
Bragg, a progressive Democrat who has refused to prosecute a number of offenses since taking office last January, is reportedly mulling charges against the former president over the hush money matter. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform last weekend that the Manhattan DA’s Office would arrest him on Tuesday on charges related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. The statement followed a growing number of reports about Bragg’s plans to indict him on charges related to the Stormy Daniels matter.
Tuesday came and went, however, without an indictment. It is not clear if threats to the DA’s office delayed such moves.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, testified before Congress in 2019 that he paid Daniels, an adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 during the 2016 campaign to prevent her from going public about an affair she claimed to have with Trump in 2005. Cohen, who pleaded guilty and served time over the alleged payment, told lawmakers Trump reimbursed him in monthly installments.
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It is unclear what charges Bragg’s office is mulling against Trump. Prosecutors in the Cohen case alleged that the Trump Organization “falsely accounted” for the monthly payments as legal expenses. Falsifying business records in New York technically amounts to a misdemeanor. To elevate it to a low-level felony, prosecutors in the Trump case must show that the conduct was committed in connection with another crime and the former president’s “intent to defraud.”
Cuomo told the talk radio program this week that he expected Trump to be indicted, saying, “You can indict a ham sandwich … I’m sure they’ll get an indictment.”
