The attempt by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to rekindle the 2016 issue with a porn star alleging she had an affair with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2006 is playing out, as Trump was charged by a Manhattan grand jury late last week. Some observers believe that all 34 allegations in the indictment are the same, and the legal foundation is rather murky because some of the allegedly violated statutes are not specified.

As the world watches, Republicans in the United States are uniting around Donald Trump. After last week’s announcement of the indictment, Conservative Brief noted that Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, stated that the state will not comply with any extradition request for Trump.

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American. The Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent. Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis said.

As previously reported by Republic Brief, Judge Juan Merchan ordered late Monday evening that he will permit five pool photographers to take photographs for several minutes before to the arraignment, but no cameras will be permitted in the courtroom once the case begins. “That this indictment involves a matter of monumental significance cannot possibly be disputed. Never in the history of the United States has a sitting or past President been indicted on criminal charges,” Merchan said.

In this unique legal and political circumstance, the judge stated that he “needed to balance other interests” by prohibiting electronic devices in both the main and overflow courtrooms.

Now, the first photograph of former President Donald Trump sitting at the defendant’s table in court has been made public. Tuesday, about 2:30 p.m. in New York, the former president entered the courtroom, and photographers on-site transmitted the shot to the press minutes later.

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Republicans have come out in support of Trump. House Judiciary GOP posted, “Alvin Bragg admitted to using YOUR federal dollars to indict President Trump.”

Conservative Brief reports statements by leading Republicans on the matter:

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz responded: “The Democrat Party’s hatred for Donald Trump knows no bounds. The ‘substance’ of this political persecution is utter garbage. This is completely unprecedented and is a catastrophic escalation in the weaponization of the justice system.”

Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said: “Tonight’s indictment of Donald Trump isn’t about the law. It’s about power. Raw power. It’s the Democrat Party telling the nation they will stop at nothing to control the outcome of the next presidential election. It is an assault on our democracy, pure and simple.”

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, and 2024 GOP presidential candidate tweeted: “From everything I have seen from this New York district attorney is that this would be something he’d be doing for political points. I think what we know is, when you get into political prosecutions like this, it’s more about revenge than it is about justice.”

And last week, Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz provided a significant update following a conversation with President Trump.

“We will wake up in a very different America because we can no longer have moral authority against the dictators who would always find it easier to jail their political rivals than to compete against them in free and fair elections. I remember my Democrat colleagues about Comey making derogatory comments about Clinton before the election. This must ring a thousand times louder to them. I believe there are federal equities at play that the United States Congress is about to evaluate,” Gaetz added.

“We don’t want to resolve differences through violence but the Chinese Communist party can pay every grifter but Donald Trump can’t pay Stormy Daniels without a legal dispute. There’s a legal element that’s not met by any evidence. They would have to prove that Donald Trump would have no reason other than the election to try to resolve this issue with Stormy Daniels privately and outside of the public sphere. I think a motion to dismiss will happen next. If this were ever to be tried, you could not do it in Manhattan. You would see a change of venue in upstate New York. Maybe it’s the only place Donald Trump could get a fair trial. I expect this will be resolved well before that by any court that looks at the way that the law is being tortured in the absence of any charge that would be maintainable against any human being on the Planet Earth other than Donald Trump and against Trump it’s clearly political,” he concluded.