Former Democratic Chief Counsel Defends Trump, Slams ‘Politicized’ Justice Under Biden Admin

Julian Epstein, the former Democratic chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, defended President-elect Donald Trump Friday on Fox Business and slammed what he said was the ‘gross abuse’ of justice in Trump’s case.

During an appearance on “The Evening Edit,” Epstein said the case was not handled correctly. He said he believed the case never would have occurred had the defendant been anyone other than Trump. The former counsel said he was dismayed over what he called procedural and ethical lapses that marred the prosecution.

“This is essentially a gross abuse of the justice system. The unconditional discharge today is the judicial equivalent of saying never mind. They put the country through this for two years, all for naught. It’s an abuse of the legal system because no American ever in the history of this country has been prosecuted on this fact pattern, and your viewers don’t need to know anything else other than that,” Epstein told host Elizabeth MacDonald. “If Donald Trump’s name was something other than Trump he would have never been prosecuted. The judge was conflicted. The prosecutor was conflicted.”

Epstein said there was a lack of clear notice regarding the actual charges.

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“It will be reversed on at least three different grounds. There was never any notice as to what the actual charges were. The jury was able to pick from a menu of possible offenses. There was no unanimity requirement in the jury decision, and the reason it was such a gross abuse was because to the extent that this involved federal campaign finance charges, there is nothing in federal campaign finance law that says hush money is a reportable offense, as Alvin Bragg alleged,” Epstein said.

“You have former chairs that the judge would not let testify. That has been very clear for chairs of the FEC that have said that hush money is not a reportable expenditure, that things like that are not reportable expenditures.”