Close associates of Donald Trump tried to make a splash with a new social media platform that Trump may or may not join, but the big news of the day was that the Trump Organization was officially charged for a 15-year tax avoidance scheme that saw a top executive, Alan Weisselberg, saddled with a number of crimes.
The charges have been a long time coming, as those around Trump and the company that shares his name have been part of a years-long investigation into criminal wrongdoing. Thursday’s perp walk flew in the face of what Trump and his children have been saying for weeks now very publicly, that they are “clean” and totally free of any wrongdoing. And in the wake of those charges, both Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump appeared on cable news to talk about how their family is being persecuted in various ways.
Executives appearing on inflammatory cable news segments on the day their company saw indictments handed down is perhaps not the wisest of decisions, legally speaking. But there were several rambling segments that aired on Thursday night. Don Jr., for example, compared the charges to Vladimir Putin poisoning and throwing a political rival in jail.
https://twitter.com/JanNWolfe/status/1410748227029069832
Eric Trump, meanwhile, last seen using random internet comments to make his case for innocence, appeared on Newsmax to say that his family lives “amazingly clean lives” and tried to make this, once again, about Hunter Biden.
Eric Trump is not taking this well… pic.twitter.com/WtzimpjEhy
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 1, 2021
Eric also appeared on Fox News to react to the news that the Trump organization was officially charged with crimes, using much of the same language he used on Newsmax.
Eric Trump's defense of his company is that $3.5 million is really nbd. Also, Hunter Biden. pic.twitter.com/YOXHkdin5N
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 2, 2021
Many were surprised that the pair were commenting on an active investigation, which is pretty out of the ordinary for basically any other company under indictment.
Clearly no one at Trump Org has told the nepotism hires that commenting on the criminal matter is unwise. Run your mouth, Eric. Run your mouth. pic.twitter.com/iulouUmiAn
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) July 2, 2021
The news was handled differently on the different cable networks, to say the least.
Just gauging different reactions across the news pic.twitter.com/szxEXEXfsk
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 2, 2021
Depending on who you believe, Thursday’s news is just part of an all-encompassing “witch hunt” against Trump and his family that’s completely unfounded, or just the start of what could be a long list of charges against the now-former president’s business dealings and the family entangled in them all. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what’s closer to reality.