In a state where Donald Trump has divided many Republicans, Illinois GOP leaders were united in their condemnation of the former president’s conviction for falsifying business records, blasting what they deemed a “sham trial,” a “fraud case” — and downright “chicken s—.”
Soon after a New York jury on Thursday found the presumptive GOP presidential nominee guilty in a hush-money case, Illinois Republican Party chairman Don Tracy called it “a political prosecution the likes of which occur in banana republics but not previously in these United States.”
“Democrat activist investigators and prosecutors have relentlessly hounded President Trump for years,” Tracy said in a statement. “This weaponization of the judicial system has weakened our country here and in the eyes of the world, which I’m sure President Biden will savor while he vacations in Delaware as his handlers make critical decisions for the country.”
Illinois Republican National Committee member Richard Porter, who has criticized Trump — and who backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP presidential primary — accused Democrats of “perverting the judicial system for political purposes.”
“Everyone sees what happened in Manhattan, the second most Democrat county in the nation — where Democrat prosecutors are trying to take his money, with a fraud case in which no one was defrauded, and take his liberty with a criminal case in which no crime was committed,” Porter said in an email.
“It’s just another example of how Democrats turn all institutions against the people they are supposed to be serving. Democrats will rue the day that they chose this path,” he said, suggesting President Joe Biden could face prosecution down the line.
“There are many, many more Republican county prosecutors than Democrat county prosecutors across the country, and they are watching what the New York County district attorney did and are taking notes,” Porter said. “Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, too.”
Even self-declared “Never-Trump” Illinois Republicans slammed the verdict, including former Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, who said he was “troubled by how this case was charged.”
“People in Manhattan were looking for a reason to convict. He was low-hanging fruit, based on electoral results in that area,” Durkin said, adding that he thought the case should have been brought to election authorities, not a criminal court.
“It’s easy to dislike Donald Trump. ... But I also have respect for the way the justice system is applied, and I thought this was an egregious example of selective prosecution by the Manhattan district attorney,” Durkin said. “Now he can say he got a conviction on Donald Trump. I’m still not sure what crime it was.”
The barbs were even sharper from Republicans downstate, where Trump remains immensely popular outside the solid blue Chicago area.
“Joseph Stalin would be proud,” said state Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, a member of the far-right Illinois Freedom Caucus of the General Assembly. “The Democrats have shown that they cannot be trusted to be anywhere near power. They must be stopped and the only way to do that is for Donald Trump to win in a landslide in November.”
Fellow Freedom Caucus Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, bemoaned “the trampling of our Constitution by the worst people imaginable.”
“The same people who allow criminals to murder, rape, and commit unspeakable acts of violence have the audacity to prosecute a former President of the country,” Wilhour said in a statement. “The American people see right through this, and they will come out in huge numbers to vote for President Trump because they understand the battle facing us is not one of politics and political disagreement — it is truly good versus evil.”
Former gubernatorial and congressional candidate Darren Bailey — and a former Freedom Caucus member until he gave up his southern Illinois state Senate seat — exclaimed on social media: “I don’t cuss, but this is chicken s—!”
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, a staunch Trump supporter who beat Bailey as GOP nominee for the 12th Congressional District, said “New York’s six-week sham trial against President Trump has eroded the public’s trust in our legal system in a way that will take years to overcome. … Even after today’s verdict, he is strengthened with an American public that is fed up with liberals weaponizing the legal system for their partisan political gain.”
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, the central Illinois congressman who has periodically criticized Trump but endorsed his 2024 comeback bid, said, “This political prosecution undermines the rule of law and faith in our justice system. It should be overturned on appeal.”
LaHood is hosting House Speaker Mike Johnson Saturday at the Peoria-Tazewell Lincoln Day Dinner, a marquee event on the state GOP calendar.
“This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one,” Johnson said in a statement. “President Trump will rightfully appeal this absurd verdict — and he WILL WIN.”
