Two early Trump backers have been caught up in scandals involving the misuse of campaign funds and illegal insider trading. Although both have maintained their innocence, this could be a damaging development for the GOP ahead of the November midterm elections.
Ben Sasse, the Republican Senator from Nebraska, has accused Donald Trump of treating the United States as “some banana republic” after the President ranted at Attorney General Jeff Sessions for pursuing criminal charges against two GOP congressmen ahead of midterm elections.
“The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice — one for the majority party and one for the minority party,” Sasse said in a statement.
“These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began,” he continued.
His rebuke came on the heels of Donald Trump’s latest Twitter tirade, in which he lashed out at Jeff Sessions for putting “two easy wins” for Republicans in doubt in the November elections due to the ongoing investigation.
Although both Sasse and Trump didn’t detail the two congressmen, they were apparently speaking of California Representative Duncan Hunter and New York Representative Chris Collins.
In August, the Justice Department headed by Sessions indicted Hunter on charges that he and his wife misspent $250,000 in campaign funds and filed false campaign records with the Federal Election Commission. They allegedly used the campaign funds for personal expenses such as family vacations and dental work, which Hunter denied, calling the charges “purely politically motivated.”
Earlier in the same month, the FBI arrested Chris Collins on securities fraud-related charges, prompting him to suspend his reelection campaign. He was accused of passing his nonpublic stock information to his family members and lying to the FBI about it; Collins has pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
Both representatives have been vocal supporters of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. They were the first two members of Congress to publicly endorse the president’s 2016 campaign.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
