BAY COUNTY, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida will not get involved after rumors started to fly about former President Donald Trump possibly getting arrested this week.
During a news conference Monday in Panama City, DeSantis was asked about his thoughts on the rumored Trump indictment and any role he plans to have in the extradition.
"So I've seen rumors swirl, I have not seen any facts yet and so I don't know what's going to happen," the governor explained. But he continued to comment on the Manhattan district attorney.
"I do know this, the Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors,...weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety," DeSantis said to reporters.
While he says he can't speak on the allegations against Trump, the governor said he can speak on the prosecutor he claims is ignoring crimes.
"If you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments...you know, that's an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office," he said. "I think that is fundamentally wrong."
DeSantis set in stone that Florida would not be involved in the situation he called a political spectacle, and he claims he has no interest in getting involved in "some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA."
"I got real issues I gotta deal with here in the state of Florida...," he said. "I got to spend my time on issues that actually matter to people."
Trump claimed on Saturday that his arrest is imminent and issued an extraordinary call for his supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates hush money payments to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.
Even as Trump's lawyer and spokesperson said there had been no communication from prosecutors, Trump declared in a post on his social media platform that he expects to be taken into custody on Tuesday.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg is thought to be eyeing charges in the hush money investigation, and recently offered Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury. Local law enforcement officials are bracing for the public safety ramifications of an unprecedented prosecution of a former American president.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.