Former President Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his defense team in a Manhattan court, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in New York. Trump is set to appear in a New York City courtroom on charges related to falsifying business records in a hush money investigation, the first president ever to be charged with a crime. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Two of Lycoming County’s political party committee chairs weighed in on the arrest and arraignment Tuesday of former President Donald J. Trump, each drawing a deep division as to the reasons and purpose of the court proceeding in Manhattan.

In statements provided upon request, Lycoming County’s Democratic Committee chairwoman McKenna Long essentially took a wait-and-see approach to the arraignment while her Republican counterpart, Don Peters, chairman of the county Republican Committee, said he believed the indictment was a tactic straight out of the “Communist Manifesto” playbook that will quickly and severely boomerang on the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“LCDC (Lycoming County Democratic Committee) believes that it is essential to democracy that no one is above the law,” Long said.

The charges Trump faces regard not just his alleged involvement in supervising a $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about an alleged affair with him but also for falsification of business filings in what was described as hush money and to cover alleged crimes in his first campaign for president in 2016. Trump pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony counts.

Peters described the indictment with 34 criminal felony counts and subsequent arraignment as a political witch hunt that will backfire for the district attorney.

“I would personally like to thank Alvin Bragg, the George Soros-funded New York County District Attorney, for his ill-advised decision to pursue charging Donald Trump,” Peters said.

Both party committee leaders were asked by the Sun-Gazette for statements ahead of the arraignment Tuesday afternoon.

Long noted that Trump was presumed to be innocent at this time.

“It is every American’s civic duty to respect our judicial system, and to presume a defendant’s innocence until proven guilty,” she said.

Long also brought up potential allegations Trump may face over connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol building.

“LCDC condemns all threats to personal safety or incitements to the kind of violence that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021,” Long said. The federal investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election appears to be focusing on Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack.

Trump also faces the cases involving handling of government documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home in Florida, and in Georgia — where a grand jury heard testimony that Trump allegedly pressured that state’s top election official to “find” 11,780 votes in the 2020 post-election days.

Peters discussed further what was imminently before Trump at the courthouse in Manhattan where he was going to be fingerprinted.

“This tactic straight out of the ‘Communist Manifesto’ playbook will quickly and severely boomerang on him and the Democrat party by now awakening a group of sleeping Republican, Independent, Libertarian and possibly Democrat voters to what is really taking place not only in New York City but across our Country,” Peters said.

Peters asserted that it was comical that the leftist complicit media continues reporting this as a “hush money” case, as though paying “hush money” were a crime.

Trump has publicly said there was no pay out and referred Daniels as “not my type,” using derogatory words in the process.

“It is not a crime,” Peters said. “People and companies frequently pay others to not speak openly or to not file suit over a matter.”

It is better known as a “non-disclosure” agreement or a settlement. It is not an admission of guilt.

“It is typically a matter of practicality where it becomes cheaper to pay someone than fight it out in court or deal with the embarrassment of their allegation, whether true or not,” Peters said.

Peters alluded to the former President Bill Clinton’s payment of $850,000 to Paula Jones to drop her sexual harassment lawsuit as an identical type of scenario.

Clinton never admitted guilt, but paid Jones to not pursue her lawsuit.

“In any case, while hush money itself is not illegal, payments made so that people do not report a crime or testify of a crime, payments that violate campaign finance laws, and lying under oath about such things are crimes,” Peters said, adding how the alleged $130,000 payment by Trump has already been investigated as a possible criminal act on two occasions by two separate governmental law enforcement agencies.

Both investigations determined the matter lacked the elements and merits needed to constitute a crime and therefore to prosecute, he said.

Peters also was critical of Bragg for busying himself, the staff and resources instead of focusing on the skyrocketing rate of violent crime in New York City.

The alleged cover up to possibly undermine the rule of law and keep information from the voting public were part of the scheme by Trump, including alleged payment of $150,000 to a model, Karen McDougal.

McDougal, often referred to in newspapers only as a former Playboy model, had been trying to sell the story of her 2006 to 2007 alleged affair to a tabloid since June 2016.

Peters predicted the polls would only become more favorable for Trump as these investigations continue.