GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert is one of a handful of allies of Donald Trump who made the pilgrimage up to NYC on Thursday to sit in the courthouse for his hush money trial.
Boebert was seated in the front row of the courtroom next to Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as the trial got underway Thursday morning, according to NPR’s Ximena Bustilo who was there. Other far right lawmakers such as Rep. Eli Crane and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Bob Good of Virginia were also in the courtroom.
“I’m in New York City for court with President Trump today. We are 100% behind him,” Boebert posted on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
A Boebert campaign spokesman said Boebert did not plan to miss Friday’s House votes, which were scheduled for 4 p.m. ET. Still, the House Oversight committee pushed back its scheduled debate and vote on a resolution recommending that Attorney General Merrick Garland be held in contempt from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate her and other lawmakers being in New York City.
Allies of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee have started going to New York City to sit behind him for part of each day. It’s the first criminal trial of a sitting or former U.S. president.
And unlike Trump, who is under a gag order and forbidden to comment on witnesses, jurors or others connected to the trial or face a fine and possibly jail, his political allies are free to critique the proceedings. (Trump has asked New York’s highest court to lift or modify the gag order.)
“They may have gagged President Trump. They didn’t gag me. They didn’t gag the rest of us,” Boebert wrote on X, before criticizing Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer who was on the witness stand this week, and the judge’s daughter, who as of a 2022 wedding announcement was president and partner of Authentic Campaigns, a progressive political consulting firm.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal information about two alleged affairs in an effort to influence the 2016 election. Trump has maintained his innocence throughout the course of the trial and has called the trial “election interference.”
Other Republican lawmakers that have attended parts of the trial include Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville. House Speaker Mike Johnson went to the courthouse, but did not go into the courtroom.
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