Hageman slams Trump indictment

CASPER – Wyoming’s Rep. Harriet Hageman, an ardent supporter of former president Donald Trump, called on people to “take our country back” after Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records related to hush money payments he allegedly made to an adult film actress and a Playboy model.
 
Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges. 
 
His historic indictment holds particular significance for Wyoming — a state where Trump won nearly 70% of the vote in 2020, his largest margin in the country. 
Wyomingites also overwhelmingly supported now Rep. Hageman — whom Trump picked to unseat his political foe former Rep. Liz Cheney — in the 2022 midterm elections. 
 
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump last week over his involvement in paying hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The payments were allegedly made to keep the women from sharing that they’d had sexual relations with Trump. 
 
The indictment followed an investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that sought to determine whether the former president had falsified records related to the payments in a way that violated campaign finance laws. 
 
Trump is also at the center of criminal investigations in Georgia and Washington related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified materials. 
 
Hageman said in a statement Tuesday that she expects Trump to be quickly cleared of what she described as the “bogus charges.” 
 
She leveled criticism at Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, calling him a “George Soros puppet...” 
 
“If a rogue D.A. can persecute a former President because they don’t like what he says, they can persecute all of us too,” she said. “It’s time to take our country back.” 
 
Liberal billionaire George Soros hasn’t directly funded Bragg, but he contributed money to a group that supported the Manhattan district attorney and other progressive candidates seeking to be prosecutors. 
 
The accusation that Bragg is acting at the direction of Soros has circulated widely among Republicans. 
 
That characterization of the Manhattan district attorney has also been echoed among groups and leaders in Wyoming, including by Wyoming’s Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Trump-backed Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Hageman also leveled criticism at Democrats on Twitter, blaming them for Trump’s indictment. 
 
“The Democrats’ obsession with ‘getting’ Donald Trump has led to a fmr President of the US being treated like political opponents are treated in Russia, China, Cuba, or other dictatorships,” she wrote. “They hate him so much they don’t care how much they harm our country & our justice system.” 
 
Gray, a 2020 presidential election skeptic who campaigned on the promise to quash voter fraud, despite it being an extreme rarity in Wyoming, echoed those accusations. 
 
“Once again, we see that the radical Left will try anything to maintain power. It is truly a dark day in our republic,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter. 
 
One person commenting on Hageman’s post described the outcry over the charges against Trump as a “lot of whining from the folks who cried ‘lock her up,’” referring to the rallying cry from Trump and his supporters calling to imprison Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. 
 
Lummis didn’t immediately respond to the Star-Tribune for comment.
 
A spokesperson for Sen. John Barrasso referred to a previous statement he had shared regarding last week’s news of Trump’s indictment. 
 

 
“This is a politically-motivated prosecution by a far-left activist,” Barrasso said. “If it was anyone other than President Trump, a case like this would never be brought. Instead of ordering political hit jobs, New York prosecutors should focus on getting violent criminals off the streets.”
 
Both senators remained quiet on social media regarding Trump’s arraignment. 
 
The Wyoming Republican Party and the hard-line Wyoming Freedom Caucus denounced the former president’s indictment in harsh terms last week. 
 
“The indictment of a former president for the first time ever in our nation should alarm every one of us,” the Wyoming GOP said in a statement. “This overzealous Soros-financed prosecutor has no responsibility to attempt to enforce federal regulation, particularly campaign finance law. It appears the Biden administration is willing to abuse its police powers for political gain.” 
 
Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne, who was on restricted grounds during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack of the U.S. Capitol, has been on first-name terms with Trump ever since he orchestrated the censure of Cheney, one of the Republican Party’s most outspoken critics of Trump. 
 
Eathorne appeared onstage with the former president at a rally in Casper last spring. “I would run through barbed wire for that guy, how ‘bout you?” Eathorne said about Trump to cheers from the crowd. 
 
The hard-line Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which has steadily gained in power and influence since 2017, called the former president’s indictment “third world” and described it as a “witch hunt” in a statement posted to its Facebook page last week.
 
“The [Wyoming Freedom Caucus] condemns this action for what it is: a banana republic-style political witch hunt without legal merit. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ignores skyrocketing violent crime in his city while pursuing fake charges against a former President,” the statement said. “Our Republic is becoming unrecognizable, and we must stop the growing tide of authoritarianism in its tracks.” 
 
One person commenting on the caucus’ post replied: “You know what is really third-world and banana republic style action? Trump’s attempting a coup d’état to overthrow a legitimate, free and fair election.”
 
In December, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol voted unanimously to refer criminal charges against Trump and others to the U.S. Justice Department. Cheney served on that committee and described Trump as “unfit for any office” during the panel’s last hearing. 
 
Though split on their support of the former president, Wyoming’s Washington, D.C. delegation uniformly described his indictment last week as “politically motivated,” a common refrain among many Republicans following the unprecedented event. 
 
While recognizing that “no one is above the law,” Lummis said last week that she had “concerns these charges are politically motivated.” 
 
“Previous prosecutors have walked away from this issue, knowing that high-profile, wealthy people like Donald Trump deal with matters such as this like a nuisance lawsuit; they protect family and reputation by paying for the silence of the accuser, regardless of the voracity of the allegations.” 
 
Barrasso and Lummis have stayed neutral in the face of Trump’s campaign for a second term in the oval office. Both have indicated that they will support the Republican nominee for president, whomever that may be, but neither have explicitly expressed support for Trump’s bid. 
 
Lummis suggested in a November interview with a Politico reporter that she’d back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Trump. 
 
Hageman, on the other hand, came out with ardent support for Trump’s reelection bid, saying she was “thrilled” the former president had decided to run again and describing him “the best president for Wyoming” in her lifetime. 
 
She denounced the decision to indict Trump last week, calling it “a political witch hunt” and “third world stuff.” 
 
“This is third world stuff, persecution and political prosecution, and if leftists had any shame they’d be embarrassed.”
 
This story was published on April 5, 2023.