Sen. Chuck Grassley calls Trump trial a 'political lynching' but says he's too busy to go

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday the criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump amount to “political lynching” of the former president.

“I think you're seeing that whatever the Democrats were trying to accomplish by prosecuting in four different ways, former President Trump, that it's kind of backfiring on them,” Grassley told reporters on a weekly press call. “And I think I see it as a political lynching.”

Grassley noted that he was taking the phrase from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who described his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings as “a high-tech lynching” after he was accused of sexually harassing Anita Hill.

Grassley said he has not been paying close attention to Trump’s criminal hush money trial, which is continuing in New York City this week.

Unlike other Republican politicians who have attended the trial to voice their support of the former president, including Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, Grassley said he is too busy to make an appearance.

“My life is pretty much Washington, D.C., or Iowa — representing Iowa,” he said. “It's a full-time job.”

'Embarrassing': Mitt Romney hits his fellow Republicans for traveling to Donald Trump's hush money trial

A spokesperson for Bird's campaign told the Des Moines Register that the Republican Attorneys General Association invited attorneys general, including Bird, "to go to Manhattan and show support for President Trump." The group also covered the trip's expenses.

Bird also decried the trial, calling the charges “a scam.”

"My background is as a prosecutor, and what I saw in that courtroom today is a travesty,” she told reporters outside the courthouse Monday. “Politics has no place in a court of law."

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She is also covering the 2024 presidential race for USA TODAY as a senior national campaign correspondent. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: GOP senator calls Donald Trump trial a 'political lynching'