LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded quickly to the news of her former boss, President Donald Trump, being named in an indictment.
On Thursday night, Sanders posted to Twitter her take on the federal felony indictment of Trump, saying the Biden administration was weaponizing the Department of Justice to influence the 2024 election.
“The Biden Administration is weaponizing the DOJ to go after their number one opponent,” she tweeted.
Sanders said prosecutors were attacking Trump and conservatives in a “two-tiered system of justice” in the indictment in connection with secure documents seized from Trump’s Mar-A-Logo home.
“It’s a two-tiered system of justice aimed directly at Donald Trump and conservatives,” she stated. “The American people should choose our next President, not politicized prosecutors hand-picked by Joe Biden,”
Sanders has a long history with Trump, serving as a deputy press secretary when he took office in 2017 then being appointed press secretary in July of that year, one of the three women and the first working mother to be White House press secretary.
She resigned from the position in June 2019, and one month later Fox News announced Sanders would become a network contributor.
She won the election as the first female Arkansas governor in 2022 as Republicans won a super-majority in the Arkansas House and Senate. Then-governor Asa Hutchinson was term-limited out of office in 2022.
When the indictment was announced, Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor and now a presidential candidate, said Trump should resign from his presidential campaign.
“While Donald Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence, the ongoing criminal proceedings will be a major distraction,” Hutchinson said. “This reaffirms the need for Donald Trump to respect the office and end his campaign.”
KARK 4 News reached out to the members Arkansas congressional delegation – Sen. John Boozman, Sen. Tom Cotton, Rep. Rick Crawford, Rep. French Hill, Rep. Steve Woman and Rep. Bruce Westerman – for comments on the indictment Friday morning.
Three members of the Arkansas delegation responded to the indictment on Friday afternoon.
Congressman Steve Womack:
“Protecting America’s secrets is of critical importance. So is equal justice under the law and keeping politics out of our justice system. Mr. Trump will have a chance to defend himself. That’s how our system is designed. Until it plays out, a rush to judgment—either way—is out of order.”
Congressman Rick Crawford:
“Given the serious questions that are raised by the act of an Attorney General of the United States indicting a former president and current political rival to his boss, AG Garland must provide a full readout explaining his rationale. And for the sake of our country, this case better be a slam dunk and involve seriously dangerous crimes. Since this case allegedly involves classified information, it will be difficult to verify this – once again forcing such public accusations in a classified space. A secretive indictment of your political opponent is a terrifying precedent with significant potential to maim our democracy and is a tactic used in dictatorships – not the United States.”
Congressman Bruce Westerman’s office said he had no official statement at this time.
Other lawmakers have not responded or made a public comment.
