Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) criticized the criminalization of politics as he tried to sidestep a question regarding the prospect of former President Donald Trump's second federal indictment.
DeSantis told reporters Tuesday he had been informed that Trump had received a target letter from Jack Smith concerning the special counsel's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but he had not been fully briefed on the development.
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"What we've seen in this country is an attempt to criminalize politics and to try to criminalize differences," he said. "I don't know what was all about that, but I do know that we look at institutions, unfortunately, like our own FBI and Department of Justice, and we've seen the politicization of those institutions. We've seen them be weaponized against Americans."
Repeating his complaint that Hunter Biden "would have been in jail if he were Republican," DeSantis underscored his "frustration" with respect to the country's institutions. But at the same time, he conceded Trump "should have come out more forcefully" during the Jan. 6 riot.
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"There's a difference between being brought up on criminal charges and doing things like, for example, I think was shown how he was in the White House and didn't do anything while things were going on," he said. "But to try to criminalize that, that's a different issue entirely. I think that we want to be in a situation where you don't have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail. And that, unfortunately, is what we're seeing now."
Trump confirmed he was the target of Smith's Jan. 6 investigation earlier on Tuesday, describing the special counsel as "deranged" and disclosing that he had four days from last Sunday to provide grand jury testimony if he so chose.