On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) responded to a question on if the trial and conviction of 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump will create a precedent for members of each party to go after their political opponents in court using the justice system by stating “There’s always that risk. But the opposite of that is perhaps worse.”
Host Jim Sciutto asked, “[A]re you worried about the precedent here? I’m not asking you to judge the decision of twelve jurors. They listened to the evidence, they did their work, they sent questions back to the judge, and they came to a guilty verdict. That’s how the system works. Are you worried, though, that this does lay the groundwork for politicians of each party to attempt to, at least, go after their political opponents via the courts?”
Quigley responded, “There’s always that risk. But the opposite of that is perhaps worse. If you take the opposite argument to, as you would, to the logical extreme, you’d never be able to prosecute a president or a former president, regardless of what their crimes are. And here, a jury of his peers decided unanimously, in rather short order, that the President was guilty.”
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