Potential running mates are flocking to the historic "hush money" trial of former President Donald Trump's as his onetime lawyer Michael Cohen appears as the star witness against the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in November.
Former Republican candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Gov. Doug Burgum, as well as Rep. Byron Donalds, all showed up at the New York City courthouse on Tuesday, after Sens. J.D. Vance and Tim Scott, another former GOP candidate, attended on Monday.
Speaking to reporters outside, Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and conservative author, called the trial a "sham" that's "straight out of a Kafka novel," according to video broadcast by Fox News.
"I am ashamed as an American citizen to sit here in a courtroom watching the former leader of the free world -- and let's be honest, likely next leader of the free world -- sitting with the indignity in this dingy, third-rate courtroom with fourth-rate prosecutors and a fifth-rate lawyer on the stand as a witness," he said.
Ramaswamy's criticism of Cohen, who he also repeatedly mentioned by name, is something Trump is barred from doing under terms of a gag order that's led to $10,000 in fines for 10 violations and a warning that'll he jailed if he violates it again.
Cohen has testified that Trump directed him to buy porn star Stormy Daniels' silence about an affair she claims she had with Trump in 2006, and that Trump approved having the Trump Organization repay Cohen for the $130,000 he paid Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, shortly before the 2016 election.
Trump, the first ex-U.S. president to face criminal prosecution, denies having had sex with Daniels and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to allegedly cover up Cohen's reimbursements.
Burgum, who helped warm up the crowd at Trump's massive rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on Saturday, repeated the ex-president's frequent claim that the case against him was "election interference, and it's tying up the president from being out on the campaign trail."
"And the sooner that this scam trial can be concluded, the sooner that the president can get back to getting out campaigning and talking to the American people about the issues that matter to them," he said.
Donalds, of Florida, called the trial a "joke" and a "farce" and asked, "Where's the crime?"
"The only crime that's happening here is this Democrat judge and the Democrat Party, prosecuting their political rival right in the middle of a presidential election," he said. "The crime here is that the issues facing our nation are not being addressed by the Democrats, but they want to go after Donald Trump."
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana also attended Tuesday's court session, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to do so, the Associated Press reported.
Johnson, who's second in line for the presidency after Vice President Kamala Harris, called the court system "corrupt" and said the case against Trump was "not about justice" but instead "all about politics."
Vance, of Ohio, was formerly a harsh Trump critic but plans to appear with him at a fundraiser in the Buckeye state during a scheduled Wednesday break in the trial, AP said.
Other Republicans who joined Trump in court on Monday included Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida showed up last week.
