House Freedom Caucus GOP lawmaker calls on Trump to tell supporters 'to stand down'

WASHINGTON – Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck warned former President Donald Trump to stop potentially instigating his supporters amid his various criminal indictments, including his case over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

“I think he absolutely needs to tell all Americans to stand down and allow the judicial system to take its course,” Buck said in an interview on MSNBC. “We trust judges, we trust jurors, we trust appellate courts. This isn’t over until it’s over.

The Colorado Republican’s comments on Trump were an unusual knock on the former president considering Buck is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group comprising the House’s most conservative lawmakers. Those lawmakers have tended to march with Trump in lockstep and have forcefully denounced most, if not all, of Trump’s legal cases.

Buck drew on his own background as a former district attorney and said “the fact that a prosecutor brings charges doesn’t mean there’s going to be a conviction.”

“It doesn’t mean that everything in those charges are going to come out at trial the way it’s been charged,” Buck said, also calling on Trump’s allies to temper their public statements to avoid inciting violence.

“I think that setting a very clear message and also having surrogates send a very clear message that violence will not be tolerated is appropriate,” Buck said.

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After Trump’s indictment in Georgia, names, pictures and home addresses of the jurors on the grand jury who indicted Trump were circulating online, raising concerns about the jurors’ safety.

Trump has frequently attacked the prosecutors who have charged him, accusing them of unfairly targeting him.

“There will be a complete EXONERATION! They never went after those that rigged the election,” Trump said on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Buck has criticized the Georgia indictment as too heavy-handed, calling the charges “a nuclear bomb where a bullet would have been appropriate,” on MSNBC.

After Trump was indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of mishandling classified documents, Buck said he would not support Trump’s reelection efforts if the former president were convicted. He said on CNN that he “certainly won’t support a convicted felon for the White House.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GOP lawmaker calls on Trump to tell supporters 'to stand down'