Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) underlined the severity of former President Trump’s criminal hush money trial, saying he believes that Americans will really pay attention to court proceedings, and it could impact their vote.
Raskin’s comments come after Trump’s attorneys have downplayed the trial. Attorney Will Scharf said Sunday that it is merely a “six-week-long media extravaganza.”
The congressman called it a “very serious case,” tying it to the other criminal cases Trump faces regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Trump’s people would like to trivialize and diminish the meaning of this trial, but in fact, it’s, perfectly emblematic of the others that are out there,” Raksin said in an MSNBC interview with Jenn Psaki on Sunday.
“They’re all about electoral interference and manipulation. And we’re going to see that in the DC case,” he continued. “They tried it with fraud. We’re going to see that in the Georgia case. And here they tried it with payoffs and then cooking the books. Financial manipulation. That’s what it’s about.”
“I think the Trump people are going to be shocked how tuned-in America is to what’s going on here,” he added.
Trump’s criminal hush money trial will start jury selection on Monday in Manhattan, where prosecutors claim the former president illegally covered up payments made to hide a previous alleged affair during the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The trial is expected to last around six weeks and marks the first of four criminal cases against the former president.
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