Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo scoffed at former President Donald Trump’s indictment Friday, arguing the charges against him are weak.
Trump announced Thursday night he had been indicted for allegedly mishandling more than 300 classified documents while out of office. There are at least seven charges brought against the former president, ABC News reported. Cuomo, while talking to journalist Matt Taibbi, said the charges will likely help Trump in the 2024 election. He has been summoned to appear in federal court in Miami, Florida, at 3 p.m. June 13.
“So these concerns, everybody loves conspiracies these days, I’m not so sure that these investigations aren’t done in a way that winds up intentionally or unintentionally helping the former president, to be honest,” Cuomo told Taibbi. “Because every time there’s a swing, it seems to expose the fact that they go after him with what seems to be at or below a level of anything that would be impressive to people reviewing the documents.”
Taibbi said it is a “very extreme step” to indict the likely nominee of the opposition party. He argued both the indictments against Trump are unsuccessful in being “airtight” or “serious” cases. Cuomo argued the “optics” of indicting a former president during an election season will backfire. Trump faced another indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over allegations he paid $130,000 in hush money to former porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. (RELATED: ‘Why Do You Believe It?’: ‘Fox & Friends’ Hosts Argue Over Charges Against Trump)
“I think that, to the majority, the optics are terrible if you’re swinging at somebody during an election and you don’t have what we deem ‘the goods,'” Cuomo added.
Trump called the indictment “the greatest witch hunt of all time” and accused officials of attempting to interfere in the 2024 election.
“Very sadly, we’re a nation in decline, and yet, they go after a popular president,” he said. “A president that got more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country — by far — and did much better the second time in the election than the first, and they go after him on a boxes hoax. Just like the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax, and all of the others. This has been going on for seven years, and they can’t stop, because it’s election interference at the highest level. There’s never been anything like what’s happened. I’m an innocent man. I’m an innocent person.”