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Jim Jordan said he couldn’t comment on Trump’s statement that there could be “death” and “destruction” if he’s indicted.
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Jordan initially said he hadn’t read Trump’s Truth Social post.
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When a reporter showed him the post, Jordan said he couldn’t read well without his glasses.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Donald Trump’s most stalwart defenders on Capitol Hill, said Friday that he couldn’t comment on Trump’s recent social media post stating that there could be “death” and “destruction” if he’s indicted in New York.
NBC News’ Sahil Kapur reported that he asked Jordan about his thoughts on Trump’s warning, but Jordan said he hadn’t seen the former president’s Truth Social post. Kapur added that when he showed Jordan Trump’s post, the Ohio congressman replied that he couldn’t read it well without his glasses.
The former president took to his Twitter-esque website early Friday and said that if he’s charged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, it would result in “potential death & destruction” and be “catastrophic for our Country.”
It was the third time in recent days that Trump alluded to the possibility of political unrest and violence; he previously urged his base to “protest” and “take our nation back” and later mocked calls for his supporters to remain “peaceful.”
Jordan, meanwhile, has a long history of going to bat for Trump and is one of three Republican committee chairmen who demanded documents and testimony from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg as Bragg’s office appears to be getting closer to bringing criminal charges against Trump.
If Trump is indicted, the case will center on an illegal $130,000 hush-money payment that Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to several felony counts — including tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations — related to the payment following a separate criminal investigation by the Manhattan US attorney’s office.
Cohen said that he made the payment at Trump’s direction. Trump has denied knowledge of the payment and denies the affair. He and his lawyers have also accused Bragg of trying to bring a politically motivated prosecution against the former president.
Earlier this week, Jordan and two other House Republicans sent Bragg a letter demanding that he testify about the ongoing investigation into Trump and calling the inquiry “an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.”
Bragg responded in a letter Thursday in which he rejected the GOP lawmakers’ demands and described them as “an unprecedent inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”
Jordan told NBC’s Kapur on Friday that he’s currently reviewing Bragg’s letter.
Insider has reached out to a spokesperson for Jordan.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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