Former US President Donald Trump’s unprecedented trial for falsifying business records shows the White House is ‘eliminating’ its political rivals, the Kremlin said Friday.
Trump became the first former US head of state ever convicted of a crime on Thursday after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony charges in a hush money case.
‘The fact that a de-facto elimination of political rivals by all possible legal and illegal means is going on there is obvious,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia, whose judiciary has been accused by rights groups and foreign governments of jailing dissidents, often criticises courts in Western countries.
Trump, who faces an election in November that could see him return to the White House, has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a ‘smart guy’.
The 77-year-old has vowed to end the Ukraine conflict ‘within 24 hours’ if re-elected, a proposal that has drawn scepticism
and alarm from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In February, Trump said he would ‘encourage’ attacks on NATO allies that did not pay their fair share, prompting fierce criticism from the White House and even some of his own supporters.
Italy’s deputy prime minister, far-right League leader Matteo Salvini, on Friday condemned Donald Trump’s conviction as political, saying the ex-president was a ‘victim of judicial harassment’.
Salvini, whose party is a junior partner in Giorgia Meloni’s government, offered his ‘solidarity and full support’ for Trump, who was found guilty on all charges at his hush money trial in New York.
‘Solidarity and full support for Donald Trump, victim of judicial harassment and a process of political nature,’ Salvini posted on X in English.
‘In Italy, we are sadly familiar with the weaponisation of the justice system by the left, given that for years attempts have been made to eliminate political opponents through legal means.’
He said he hoped the Republican, who is running again for president in November’s elections, would win against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.
‘I hope Trump wins; it would be a guarantee of greater balance and hope for world peace,’ Salvini said.
Italy’s other deputy prime minister, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, leader of the right-wing Forza Italia party, was more circumspect.
In a TV interview, he said it was up to Americans to decide who they wanted as president, saying that for Italy, ‘it makes no difference for us’.
‘Italy is an ally of the United States, not of this or that president,’ he said.