DeSantis won't extradite Trump to NYC due to political "weaponization of the legal system"

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that the state will not comply with a future extradition request for Donald Trump, who was indicted Thursday by a Manhattan grand jury.

The indictment sets a legal precedent because it is the first time a former U.S. president has been criminally charged, and in a brief message on Twitter, DeSantis said that "the weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head."
 

The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head.

It is un-American.

The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is…

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 30, 2023

Trump has his residence in the private club of Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, and has already reacted to his indictment for the alleged payments that his lawyer made to a porn actress in 2016.

The former president has denounced the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office grand jury investigation as a “political Witch-Hunt trying to obstruct his presidential run.

Despite the political feud between DeSantis and Trump in recent months, the Florida governor echoed the former president's claim that the New York district attorney in his case, Alvin Bragg, is funded by tycoon George Soros, who is a donor to the Democratic Party.

"Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda," said DeSantis. 

DeSantis has not yet disclosed whether he will run for the presidential nomination in 2024, but the back-and-forth attacks with Trump and other signs suggest he is already on the campaign trail.