May 16, 2024 12:01 PM UTC

Trump Hush Money Trial: Boebert, Gaetz, And The MAGA Cavalry Arrive

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post reports today from the soon-to-conclude criminal trial against former President Donald Trump in New York on charges stemming from the coverup-worse-than-the-crime after a “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for an affair Trump claims never happened, even though the $130,000 payment did:

Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified Thursday that he lied before Congress and in other official proceedings, as cross-examination continued for a second day in the former president’s hush money and records falsification trial. Cohen’s testimony is key to the prosecution’s case, tying Trump to reimbursements for the hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, and prosecutors have said Cohen will be their last witness. Trump’s defense team is grilling him aggressively, trying to undermine both his prior testimony and his credibility…

While the cross-examination of former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen continues inside the courtroom, today a group of MAGA loyalist members of Congress led by Reps. Matt “Giggity” Gaetz and his very close friend Rep. Lauren Boebert to say the things that would get Trump himself thrown in some kind of historic form of custody for contempt of court.

You might even say Gaetz and crew are “proud of their boy.”

The DNC was quick to respond to Gaetz invoking Trump’s infamous marching orders to the Proud Boys militia group:

“Donald Trump is surrounding himself today with disgraced MAGA extremists like Matt Gaetz, who is shamelessly invoking Trump’s infamous call for the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by’ before they violently attacked our democracy on January 6. This is just the latest in a long pattern of Trump and his allies stoking fear and violence, as they continue to cozy up to dangerous criminals and white supremacists, praising them at every opportunity and pledging pardons to convicted January 6 rioters. Trump and his allies’ total disregard for democracy or the rule of law is dangerous and a disgraceful embarrassment to our country – and voters will remember that come November.”

The Denver Post’s John Aguilar reports:

Boebert appeared at the courthouse Thursday morning with several fellow Republican House members, including House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good of Virginia and Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona.

The Associated Press reported that Boebert, Gaetz, Waltz and Good were spotted sitting in the first row of the gallery, next to Eric Trump, the former president’s son. The Hill reported that as the jury entered the courtroom Thursday morning, Boebert “slowly turned her body to continue facing them as they walked across the room to the jury box.” [Pols emphasis]

Which we’re certain the jurors didn’t take in any way, you know, menacingly. Other than intimidating the jury with scowls and barfight body language, Boebert’s assignment today was to throw rhetorical grenades that would see Trump tossed in a holding cell if he had said them, so a gratuitous shot at the daughter of the judge presiding over the case was practically a given:

As one of Trump’s most fiercely loyal minions along with the salaciously soiled but hard-charging Matt Gaetz, there’s nothing unexpected about Boebert showing up as part of this orchestrated show of support–in fact, it would have been newsworthy if she hadn’t shown up, if not with Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this week than with her close friend Rep. Gaetz.

It’s the obsequious loyalty Trump expects and his MAGA “rebels” deliver. They are a package deal.