Pence says Trump indictment sends 'terrible message' about U.S. justice

[April 01, 2023]  By Tim Reid and Katharine Jackson
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump sends a "terrible message" to the world about American justice and will encourage dictators to abuse power, former Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday.   

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivers remarks, in part addressing his opposition to a grand jury subpoena for testimony about efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection loss, to the Coolidge Presidential Foundation conference at the Library of Congress in Washington, U.S. February 16, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

"There are dictators and authoritarians around the world that will point to that to justify their own abuse of their own so-called justice system," Pence, Trump's former vice president and a potential rival for the Republican Party's 2024 White House nomination, said during an interview at the National Review's Ideas Summit.

Trump is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in a New York courthouse next week as he becomes the first former president to face criminal charges, in a case involving a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump, who is mounting a comeback bid for the presidency he lost in the 2020 election, was indicted on Thursday in New York.

Pence has joined fellow Republicans and Trump's other potential 2024 rivals in condemning the indictment, calling it an "outrage."

(Reporting by Timothy Reid and Katharine Jackson; editing by Rami Ayyub and Jonathan Oatis)

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