As Trump faced trial, key GOP lawmakers aided his public defense

During the weeks Donald Trump stood trial on state criminal charges, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate’s allies in Congress used the power of their office to aid his defense in the court of public opinion.

Guilty verdicts on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Thursday against the former president came after key Republican lawmakers held a hearing, wrote letters, released a report, filed an ethics complaint about the judge and spoke to media cameras near the Manhattan courthouse.

Those actions called into question the prosecutors, the judge, the witnesses and the jurors at a time when Trump was bound by a gag order, and amplified Trump’s arguments that sought to paint the legal process as a political weapon meant to damage his campaign.