Andrew Cuomo agreed that New York’s hush money case against Donald Trump was politically motivated.
The former Democratic governor of New York, who also served as the state’s attorney general from 2007 to 2010, said the charges would never have been filed if Trump had not run for president again.
“Frankly, the Attorney General’s case in New York should never have been brought,” Cuomo said in an interview Friday on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
“And if his name wasn’t Donald Trump and if he weren’t running for president (I’m the former attorney general of New York), I assure you that case would never have been brought,” he added. “That’s what’s offensive to people, and it should be, because if there’s anything left, it’s belief in the justice system.”
The case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and the MAGA world has accused the Democrat of unfairly targeting Trump as the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Friday that if Donald Trump had not run for president in 2024, the hush money case would not have been brought against him.
Trump was convicted last month by a Manhattan jury of 34 felonies related to paying money to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about her extramarital affair a decade earlier.
The former president still denies the matter and has pledged to appeal the case.
President Joe Biden and Trump will face off onstage Thursday in Atlanta for their first debate of the 2024 general election.
Maher said in the interview with Cuomo that he agreed that the particular case against Trump would never be something that could sink his campaign and felt it was a long shot to file charges against him.
“I was always with you in the hush money trial in New York,” the late-night host told Cuomo in a joint interview with former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). “I don’t think they should have brought that one.”
“It was always going to look like a sexual case and people were always going to see it that way,” he argued.
There are three other criminal cases against Trump with dozens of other felony charges. One case is in Florida and is related to the theft of classified documents from the White House. The other two are related to election interference: one in Washington, DC and the other in Fulton County, Virginia.
“The trial in New York, where he was convicted, was the biggest fundraising bonanza in history,” Maher said on Friday’s episode.
“He was behind Biden and now he’s well ahead,” he continued. “That trial was the biggest reason people had to send their $5, $10, $25 checks to Donald Trump.”
And Maher is not wrong.
HBO host Bill Maher agreed with Cuomo that the case against Trump was never going to sink his campaign and would only bolster his support heading into November.
Both self-reported fundraising numbers and post-conviction poll numbers soared for Trump after he became a felon.
More than a quarter of voters (27 percent) said in a poll taken after the ruling that the conviction makes them more likely to vote for Trump in November.
Cuomo says Americans are losing faith in democracy the more the justice system appears to get involved in elections and decide who and who cannot hold public office.
“If you want to talk about a threat to democracy, when this country believes that you are playing politics with the justice system and you are trying to imprison people or convict them for political reasons, then we have a real problem.” ‘said the former governor.