DOJ spox caught on video admits DA Bragg's 'nonsense' case against Trump a 'perversion of justice'

By 
 September 6, 2024

The multiple criminal and civil prosecutions against former President Donald Trump, especially the hush money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have been viewed by many of his supporters as politically motivated travesties of injustice that were intended solely to prevent him from winning re-election in November.

That view was seemingly just confirmed by the top spokesman for the Justice Department's Southern District of New York, Nicholas Biase, in statements made on a secret video recorded by an undercover journalist, according to the New York Post.

Of course, the federal official is now backtracking and apologizing for his candid remarks that he didn't realize were caught on video and was never meant by him to be publicly heard.

Caught on video admitting the truth

On Thursday, conservative podcaster Steven Crowder posted a 13-minute video that features SDNY Chief of Public Affairs Biase in a bar while speaking with a woman who was secretly recording him.

Biase called the hush money case brought by DA Bragg, whom he previously worked with in the SDNY, a "nonsense" case and a "perversion of justice." He further claimed that Bragg has ambitions for higher office and hoped to use the Trump prosecution to get there, and accused the prosecutor of "stacking charges" and "rearranging things just to make it fit a case."

He also predicted that presiding Judge Juan Merchan "is probably going to try to lock [Trump] up" and that he expected things to be "ugly," as "they are so obsessed with getting him."

Asked who he meant by "they," Biase replied, "The Democrats … It affects his candidacy if he’s a convicted felon." However, he seemed to acknowledge that the effort had backfired as he mused that "Those felonies did nothing to stop Trump from running … In fact, they made him more relevant," and actually had him "surging in the polls" rather than losing support.

Other cases against Trump a "perversion" and "mockery of justice"

Biase's caught-on-video commentary wasn't exclusively focused on DA Bragg's hush money conviction of former President Trump, however, as he also took swipes at the civil fraud prosecution brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and the 2020 election-related racketeering case in Georgia by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

"Every real estate person in New York does what [Trump] did," he said of Trump's conviction for allegedly fraudulently inflating property values to obtain better loan rates. "Nobody’s ever been charged with this … You know, it’s a perversion of justice."

Of the case in Georgia, which he called a "travesty," Biase said of Willis, "To put it mildly, it’s a mockery of justice. She is a joke … The whole thing is disgusting. They’re just out to get him."

Whoops!

Rather predictably, CNN reported that Biase released an apologetic statement to try to walk back his remarks after the undercover video went viral on Thursday and said, "I was recently made aware of a video where I regretfully made some statements in a private and social setting that don’t reflect my views about two local and state prosecutions."

"I said these things in an effort to please and impress someone I just met, who was secretly filming me," he added. "I’m deeply sorry to the local and state law enforcement officials working on these matters, who deserve more respect than I showed them. I should have known better."

Also quite predictably, CNN sought to defend Biase by noting that, as a member of the DOJ's SDNY and not the Manhattan DA's Office, he had no involvement whatsoever with the Trump hush money case -- but it doesn't take direct involvement in the case to see that it was plainly an act of politically motivated and partisan injustice.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson