Upstate New York’s Republican congressmen are voicing their support for former President Donald Trump after a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him on Thursday, March 30. 

Trump was indicted on charges regarding his involvement in hush money payments during the 2016 election. This marks the first time a former president has been charged with a crime. He is expected to be arrested next week.

Rep. Brandon Williams, R-22, like many other Republicans in Congress, accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of using his office for political grandstanding. 

“Justice should be blind and everyone should be held to equal standards. Alvin Bragg’s actions demoralize the police force and endanger the citizens of NYC,” Williams said in a statement on his campaign Twitter account. “Blind justice should also apply to the rapists, drug dealers and violent criminals Bragg lets off the hook — not just presidents.” 

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-24, was the congresswoman for New York’s 22nd Congressional District from 2016–18, and from 2021–23. She is friends with Trump, and he visited Utica in 2018 to promote her campaign.   

Tenney took aim at Bragg, accusing him of taking part in a “witch-hunt targeting President Donald Trump,” calling it “political persecution with purely malicious intent.”   

“Every American should be concerned about this gross abuse of power and the politicized two-tiered system of justice we now have in America,” Tenney said in a statement. “I once again call on Governor Kathy Hochul to act. Uphold the rule of law and remove Alvin Bragg from office for, among other things, his failure to enforce the law and his blatant politicization of the criminal justice system. ”    

In a letter to GOP lawmakers, Bragg’s general counsel called the accusations that Trump’s indictment was political persecution, “misleading and meritless.” 

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-21, referred to the indictment as “election interference” and said that it is a dark day for America. 

“The radical Far Left will stop at nothing to persecute Joe Biden’s chief political opponent ahead of the 2024 presidential election to suppress the will and voice of the American people,” Stefanik said in a statement. 

Trump is also the leading contender for the Republican Party in the 2024 election, but his upcoming trial has thrown his campaign into uncertainty. However, Stefanik is confident that it will not impact his election prospects. 

“Tens of millions of patriotic Americans have never been so energized to exercise their constitutional rights to peacefully organize and vote at the ballot box to save our great republic by electing President Donald J. Trump in 2024,” she said in a statement.  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Trump is subject to the same laws that all Americans are.

“He will be able to avail himself of the legal system and a jury, not politics, to determine his fate according to the facts and the law,” Schumer said in a statement. “There should be no outside political influence, intimidation or interference in the case. I encourage both Mr. Trump’s critics and supporters to let the process proceed peacefully and according to the law.”