Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe called the legal theory used to indict former President Donald Trump "clearly unconstitutional."
Ratcliffe slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures, saying that Bragg is trying to bring federal charges against Trump when he does not have that power.
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"I think, as every legal expert has said, not just an absurd and pathetic legal theory, but clearly unconstitutional. ... I believe in states’ rights under the tenth amendment, but what the tenth amendment does not allow for states to come up with a different interpretation of federal law than the federal government has. And in this case, the federal government, Department of Justice, has looked at the theory that is being advanced here and has said it is not consistent with the law. The federal election commission has said the same thing," Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe also said the only felony in the case would have been committed by Bragg or a member of the grand jury who indicted him because the information from the sealed indictment has been leaked.
"The only felony of which we can be certain to come out of this Alvin Bragg prosecution in this New York is the felony committed either by D.A. Bragg himself or someone on the grand jury that he’s using for this perversion of our justice system. The accused, Donald Trump, and his lawyers don't know what’s in this sealed indictment, but for the past 72 hours, the American public has been discussing supposedly 30 or 34 felony counts," Ratcliffe said.
"Leaking grand jury information is a felony, and so the only people capable of that would be Alvin Bragg’s team or members of the grand jury itself. So really sort of underscores the absurdity of what’s going on here," Ratcliffe said.
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Trump is set to be arraigned in Manhattan on Tuesday, with the charges set to be unsealed after he is arraigned, per New York state law. The former president has maintained his innocence and has called the indictment an unprecedented attack on the country. He is the first former president to be criminally indicted.
The indictment appears to have stemmed from an investigation by prosecutors in New York City into allegedly falsified business records regarding a $130,000 reimbursement of Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump. The payment was made in 2016, in the midst of one of Trump's presidential runs.