Trump defenders unleash 'an embarrassing slurry of misdirection, illogic and non sequiturs': analysis

The vast majority of Republicans are sticking by former President Donald Trump, even after he got hit with a 37-count federal indictment that even some former members of his own administration say is deeply damning.

However, New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman does not seem impressed with their defenses of the former president.

In a new column, Wegman accuses Trump's allies of unleashing "an embarrassing slurry of misdirection, illogic and non sequiturs" that put them "in the humiliating position of trying to defend the indefensible."

He first takes apart the claim made by Trump defenders that his indictment for willfully retaining defense information is an example of selective prosecution given that Hillary Clinton wasn't criminally charged for her decision to conduct State Department business on a private email server.

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Wegman notes that this line of attack completely erases the multiple obstructive actions that Trump took to prevent the government from retrieving the documents he possessed, which allegedly even included nuclear secrets.

"Mr. Trump created this mess entirely by himself," writes Wegman. "He didn’t simply violate the law by taking documents that didn’t belong to him. He refused to return many of them when asked."

Wegman also takes a scalpel to claims made by Trump and his defenders about the Presidential Records Act supposedly giving him the power to take any top-secret documents with him after leaving the White House, despite the fact that the law explicitly says that the government “shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession and control of presidential records.”

"I would call it gaslighting, except it’s not creative enough," he writes.

Read the whole column here.