Donald Trump's Thursday meltdown on his Truth Social website had already made its way into court proceedings in Florida just one day later.
"Former President Donald Trump's post-election screed labeling Florida's governor 'Ron DeSanctimonious' didn't go unnoticed by Andrew Gillum or his Miami lawyers," the Tallahassee Democrat reported. "In addition to saying he helped 'fix' DeSantis' campaign after it had 'completely fallen apart,' Trump said he also got the feds to intervene 'when votes were being stolen' in Broward County."
Gillum was beaten by Ron DeSantis in the 2018 midterms.
"David Markus and Katherine Miller, who are representing Gillum on federal public corruption charges involving donations to his gubernatorial campaign, didn't fire back at insults Trump hurled at Tallahassee's former mayor," the newspaper reported. "Instead, they cited Trump's statement in a motion filed Friday in federal court saying it further supported their request for a hearing on whether the federal government selectively prosecuted Gillum because of his race."
In a series of posts imitating a Twitter thread, a feature Trump's Truth Social does not support, Trump had harsh words for DeSantis.
Trump complained that Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Post had gone "all in" for DeSantis, who Trump described as "an average Republican governor with great public relations."
"I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win," Trump claimed.
Gillum's lawyers seized on Trump's social media remarks in their filing.
"Former President Trump's posts raise serious questions about how exactly Trump 'fixed' DeSantis' campaign and what Trump directed the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to do, and whether there is any connection to the FBI's investigation and later prosecution of Gillum," Gillum's lawyers argued.
The attorneys said Trump's Truth Social post demonstrates a "prima facie case of selective prosecution (at a minimum for political purposes), because Donald Trump confirms that he took action through the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office."
According to The Washington Post, Trump's claims of sending federal agents to intervene in the election are "also almost certainly false."
