Jewish groups on both sides of the aisle responded to a New York jury’s conviction of former President Donald Trump on all 34 felony charges.
“Without question, this is a political prosecution of a political opponent.
It’s a weaponization of the legal system,” stated Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“The case is deeply flawed and will likely be overturned on appeal,” Brooks added. “The Democrats think this will hurt Trump, the reality is that it will likely propel Trump to victory in November.”
Mark Mellman, president and CEO of the Democratic Majority for Israel, noted that Trump had been innocent until proven guilty.
“He has now been proven guilty by a jury of his peers,” Mellman stated. “It will be up to voters to decide how to weigh these convictions in the election. For our part, we do not believe a convicted felon should hold the highest office in the land.”
After the jury read its decision, Trump said that “the real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people, and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here. You have a Soros-backed D.A. and the whole thing, we didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a very innocent man.”
Some accused Trump of being antisemitic when he noted that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, had the support of George Soros, who is Jewish.
Jason Bedrick, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, responded to that criticism.
“Y’know it’s funny. When people are screaming genocidal slogans about the world’s one Jewish state, the left bends over backwards to declare that it’s not antisemitism,” he wrote. “But when people accurately point out that Soros has funded far-left D.A.s, even without referring to his Jewish ethnicity at all, the left shrieks about antisemitism.”
“We all see through this tired, politically motivated game,” he added. “Stop cheapening the charge of antisemitism.”
