Andrew Cuomo admitted that New York’s hush money case against Donald Trump was politically motivated.
The former Democratic governor of New York, who also served as the state’s attorney general from 2007 to 2010, said the charges would never have been filed if Trump had not run for president again.
“Frankly, the New York attorney general’s case should never have been brought,” Cuomo said in an interview Friday on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
“And if his name wasn’t Donald Trump and he wasn’t running for president – I’m the former attorney general of New York – I’m telling you, this case would never have been brought.” , he added. “That’s what’s offensive to people, and it should be because if there’s anything left, it’s trust in the justice system.”
The case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and the Democrat was accused by MAGA World of unfairly targeting Trump as the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Friday that if Donald Trump had not been running for president in 2024, the hush-hush case would not have been brought against him.
Trump was convicted last month by a Manhattan jury of 34 crimes related to paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to keep quiet about their extramarital affair a decade earlier.
The former president still denies this affair and has pledged to appeal.
President Joe Biden and Trump face off on stage in Atlanta on Thursday for their first debate of the 2024 general election.
Maher said in the interview with Cuomo that he agreed that the particular case against Trump would never be something that could sink his campaign and felt it was impossible to bring charges against him.
“I was always with you during the New York secret trial,” the late-night talk show host told Cuomo in a joint interview with former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois). “I don’t think they should have brought that one.”
“It was always going to seem like a sex thing and people were always going to look at it that way,” he argued.
There are three other criminal cases against Trump with dozens of other criminal charges. One case occurs in Florida and involves the seizure of classified documents at the White House. The other two are related to election interference – one in Washington, D.C. and the other in Fulton County, Virginia.
“The trial in New York, the one he was convicted of, was the biggest fundraising bonanza ever,” Maher said on Friday’s episode.
“He was behind Biden and now he’s got a head start,” he continued. “This lawsuit was the main reason why people had to send their $5, $10, $25 checks to Donald Trump.”
And Maher is not wrong.
HBO host Bill Maher agreed with Cuomo that the prosecution of Trump would never sink his campaign and would only boost his support heading into November.
Self-reported fundraising numbers as well as post-conviction poll numbers skyrocketed for Trump after he became a felon.
More than a quarter of voters (27%) said in a poll taken after the ruling that the conviction increased their chances of voting for Trump in November.
Cuomo says Americans are losing faith in democracy as it appears the judiciary is getting involved in elections and deciding who and who cannot hold public office.
“You want to talk about a threat to democracy – when this country believes that you are playing politics with the justice system and trying to put people in prison or convict them for political reasons, then we have a real problem,” the former governor said.