Donald Trump is arguably the most high-profile defendant to allege he’s the victim of political persecution, but he’s not the only right-wing figure to play that card, Mother Jones reports.
The report notes that at the time of Trump’s Manhattan court appearance for his April arraignment on charges in connection with alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, disgraced Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who had been arrested on fraud charges weeks earlier, among others, were outside the courtroom making the same unsubstantiated claims of political persecution as the former president.
Mother Jones’ Dan Friedman writes that, “It was clear then what was going on. Anyone with a legal problem and a fleeting link to Trump would attempt to claim that they, too, were victims of the vast Deep State conspiracy that the former president insists is targeting him and his backers.”
The latest right-wing defendant to claim political persecution is Gal Luft, the fugitive co-director of a Maryland-based think tank who according to the Department of Justice was indicted in connection with violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act in brokering arms deals between Chinese companies, Iran and several Middle East countries.
House Republicans have promoted Luft as a potential star witness against the Biden family.
Friedman writes that Luft “contends the Justice Department is prosecuting him in an effort to shut down his allegations that a Chinese company paid Biden family members in 2017 for political influence.”
Luft in a video published last week in The New York Post suggested without evidence that his prosecution was a retaliatory measure by the DOJ after he informed the agency and the FBI of wrongdoing by the Biden family, The New York Times reports.
He’s found a receptive audience in a GOP that has embraced his conspiracy theories, Friedman writes, noting that the recent announcement by Oversight Committee chair Jim Comer (R-Ky.) that the DOJ unsealed the indictment against Luft to prevent him from testifying before Congress neglects the fact that as a fugitive it’s unlikely Luft would be making public appearances in Washington D.C. anytime soon.
