m
ike Pence, who served as vice president under President Donald Trump from 2017–2021, said the indictment of the former president is “a great disservice to the country” and that he thinks millions of Americans will see it as “nothing more than a political prosecution.”
Pence reacted to the indictment during a 10-minute exclusive interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on March 30, hours after news broke that a New York grand jury had voted to criminally charge Trump.
He said it was wrong for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to pursue charges after Bragg’s predecessor and federal prosecutors declined to do so. Pence said he also took issue with Bragg running for office “on the pledge to indict the former president.”
“I think that offends the notion of the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe in fairness, who believe in equal treatment before the law,” Pence said, adding that singling out Trump appears to be an example of “a two-tiered justice system,” and that the American people are fed up with it.
“This is a bad decision by a political prosecutor,” he said.
When Blitzer pointed out that a grand jury, not Bragg, voted to indict Trump, Pence replied that, clearly, the prosecutor is very influential in guiding a grand jury toward an indictment and that “the threshold of proof is very low.”
Pence, who is an attorney, called the prosecution “an outrage” and said there is “a possibility that a judge will even throw this case out before we even go to trial.”
While stating that he cannot speak to the merits of Bragg’s case, Pence said that a campaign finance issue “should never have risen to the level to bring an unprecedented and historic prosecution.”
Media ‘Obsession’ With Trump ‘Lost’ on Citizenry
While considering his own possible run for the presidency, Pence said he has been traveling around the country quite a bit.
