Bishop compares Trump trial to justice system Black people faced in segregated South

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop said former President Donald Trump was the victim of “selective” and “vindictive” prosecution that was comparable to the justice system Black people faced in the segregated South.

Bishop made the comments about Trump’s recent conviction during an appearance Monday on The Pete Kaliner Show on Charlotte radio station WBT.

Bishop was asked about the New York trial, which ended Thursday with a jury finding Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to hush money he paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The Republican congressman, who is running for North Carolina attorney general, said Trump’s prosecution was “politically motivated.”

“The problem here is that politics should never drive the use and application of the criminal justice infrastructure, ever,” Bishop said. “And unless you can say that others are being prosecuted for similar offenses, similar circumstances, with the same laws, and susceptible to the same punishments, it is a concept known as selective or vindictive prosecution.

“It’s well known to the law, it is a violation of the Constitution, and it cannot stand,” he added.

Bishop went on to say that the prosecutors who charged Trump had abused their power and “should themselves be prosecuted.”

“When I say it’s rigged, it’s not just they don’t go into a fair fight, they go into a place where they know the fight is unfair,” Bishop said. “It’s as bad as it was in Alabama in 1950, if a person happened to be Black, in order to get justice. And, that’s what they did in New York. So, it’s fundamentally rigged, and the people who attack me for saying so can attack all they want.”

Trump’s sentencing, which has been set for July 11, could range from probation to a maximum of 20 years in prison.

In addition to the hush money case, Trump also faces federal charges related to classified documents he kept after leaving office; federal charges in an election interference case related to his false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election that led to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol; and state-level charges in Georgia, where he’s accused for allegedly trying to thwart certification of the state’s 2020 election results.

Last week, after Trump was found guilty in New York, Bishop said the prosecution was “election interference” to “get Trump.”

“It’s never been about justice — it’s about rigging and weaponizing our justice system against anyone who threatens their grip on power. We must end the leftist lawfare in November,” he wrote on X.

NC Attorney General’s election

Bishop ran unopposed in the March primary for the GOP nomination for attorney general.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, his opponent in the general election, slammed him for calling the trial “rigged.”

“He immediately dismisses 34 unanimous verdicts by a jury as ‘rigged,’ ”Jackson wrote in a post responding to Bishop. “He’s never been a prosecutor — and it shows. Disagreeing with a jury is one thing, but saying the whole thing is rigged is dishonest and destructive.”

Jackson, a former state senator and prosecutor in Gaston County, told McClatchy last week that it was what he described as Bishop’s attack on the jury that “really bothered me.”

“When I was a prosecutor, I saw jury verdicts I disagreed with,” Jackson said. “You want to respond to that, in a rational way. Not by lashing out and calling the jury rigged. I just thought that behavior really targeting the jury is well beneath what we should expect from an attorney general, especially when we’re talking about someone who’s never prosecuted a single case.”

Washington correspondent Danielle Battaglia contributed.