WASHINGTON, DC – After Trump weaponized the Department of Justice to unjustly attack and indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on baseless charges, her fellow Democratic AGs have spoken in defense of their colleague and called out Trump’s egregious abuse of power to silence his political opponents. 

In a joint statement from 23 Democratic AGs, the AGs stated, “None of us, whether our states’ top legal officials or members of the public, should stand idly by while justice is upended and this president uses the criminal legal system to pursue his personal vendettas.” Over the past week, Democratic AGs from across the country hit the airwaves to condemn Trump’s retaliatory prosecution of AG James.  

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on Erin Burnett OutFront:  

• “Tish James is a fighter, and she is in really good spirits. She’s obviously prepared to fight this spurious indictment… All of the Democratic AGs who have been fighting so hard to uphold our democracy and to hold Donald Trump accountable for his many violations of the Constitution and the rule of law, stand with her.”

• “This is an outrageous abuse of power. It has never been seen before in the history of this country, where a president orders an attorney general to prosecute people on his enemies list.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on CBS News Los Angeles (KCAL): 

• “This was expected, but it is still a shocking and staggering abuse of power of the U.S Department of Justice, and this is [an] erosion of the integrity of the U.S. DOJ, who is supposed to be independent… and make decisions that are free of political influence.”

• “This is a political persecution, not a criminal prosecution, and it’s unfortunately the latest stop on the vengeance tour of President Trump.”

• “It’s unprecedented for a U.S. president to demand the prosecution of a perceived political enemy, have the normally independent U.S. Department of Justice decline to do so… and then replacing that U.S. attorney with his handpicked, hand-selected former personal attorney– with no criminal prosecution experience– to bring the case.”

• “…It’s important that we continue to plant flags in the ground about our principles and never accept the unacceptable, never normalize what’s so abnormal.” 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on MSNBC’s The Weekend:
 

• “…This is a trashing of the American justice system. It always comes with authoritarian takeover.”

• “We now are in a whole new territory. American institutions must stand up, must hold, so we can maintain and preserve American democracy.” 

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin on The Joy Reid Show: 

• “This is a really dark day. This is a red line that in this nation, in democratic societies, we’re not supposed to cross. You do not weaponize the criminal justice system against people with whom you have political disagreements.”

• The America I know, Democrats, Republicans, they do not even contemplate the idea that you can wake up and fire a prosecutor and put your political crony in who’s going to bring a trumped up charge against a… political adversary. That’s what happens in Russia. That’s what happens in China. It’s not what’s supposed to happen in the United States of America. And yet, that is exactly what we’re seeing now on an almost daily basis. We cannot let this become normal.”

• “We’re going to keep fighting across the board and in the courts. We have to. But the American people need to stand up and say, ‘This is not who we are. This is not who we are as a nation. This is not the principles of this nation that we all grew up believing existed.’”

• “We have an obligation, all of us. We took an oath to protect the residents of our state, to stand up for the rule of law and the constitution of our nation… and we would be derelict in our responsibility if we didn’t.” 

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