Republished with permission from Florida Phoenix, by Michael Moline

Gov. Ron DeSantis, acknowledging he hadn’t ready Tuesday’s indictment of former President Donald Trump for seeking to violently disrupt the election of President Joe Biden and cling to power, has decried the charges.

“As President, I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI Director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans,” DeSantis wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

“While I’ve seen reports, I have not read the indictment. I do, though, believe we need to enact reforms so that Americans have the right to remove cases from Washington, DC to their home districts,” he continued.

“Washington, DC is a ‘swamp’ and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality. One of the reasons our country is in decline is the politicization of the rule of law. No more excuses — I will end the weaponization of the federal government.”

DeSantis, who has been rowing with Vice President Kamala Harris over a new state curriculum that teaches that Blacks benefited from slavery, did not mention that Black people are the second largest demographic group (45%) in the District of Columbia after whites (46%) according to the U.S. Census and therefore would help comprise any jury pool.

Neither did he mention that, according to the indictment, Trump ordered ‘sham’ U.S. Justice Department investigations into election crimes in certain states and considered having DOJ officials send letters outlining supposed concerns with the elections in those states. Those concerns could then be used as a pretext to advance fraudulent electors in key states, the indictment reads.

He didn’t mention that Trump appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray, either.

The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure dictate that crimes must be prosecuted in the district in which they are alleged to have been committed.