Aquilino Gonell, among the current and former officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol complex against rioting Trump supporters on January 6, criticized Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) this weekend for sticking so relentlessly with former President Donald Trump as the ex-commander-in-chief seeks another term — and faces four criminal cases.
Graham had posted to mark the anniversary of the death of John McCain, the veteran-turned-Republican Senator from Arizona who was known as outside Trump’s corner politically when he was alive. “@LindseyGrahamSC, John McCain wouldn’t recognize you and would have called you out on your affinity to someone who have brazenly violated the constitution and the laws,” Gonell replied.
Trump is currently facing over 90 individual accusations of criminality across those four cases, with the most recent, in Georgia, having been the first to involve the ex-president paying a cash bail. (He covered only a portion of the dollar amount at which his bond had been set, partnering with a bail bonds company.)
Many Americans generally support the investigative action that’s been taken against Trump, polls show. Recent survey data from a firm called Navigator Research showed majorities of Americans describing the underlying investigations in all four cases as legitimate rather than a so-called witch hunt as Trump continues to insist. Trump also claims he’s the victim of so-called election interference because the cases are taking shape amid his campaign, but all four investigations were publicly known before Trump formally confirmed his expected 2024 campaign.
Graham has been publicly in support of Trump throughout these legal travails. “Donald Trump is being charged with a criminal act for telling people to watch a network show about the election. If that becomes a crime Adam Schiff will be in jail for 1,000 years,” he recently wrote on X, the platform formerly called Twitter. Graham was misrepresenting the substance of the Georgia case, which involved not simply the former president encouraging viewership for a certain program but that advocacy allegedly connecting to a broader criminal conspiracy. Not everything mentioned in the indictment is by itself the foundation for a charge.
@LindseyGrahamSC, John McCain wouldn’t recognize you and would have called you out on your affinity to someone who have brazenly violated the constitution and the laws. https://t.co/IIk1YbaLqz
— Staff Sergeant Gonell, Aquilino (@SergeantAqGo) August 27, 2023
