Most Pa. Republican officials are quiet about the Trump election indictment

The results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania factor heavily in the conspiracy charges filed this week against former President Donald Trump, but most of the commonwealth’s top Republicans have avoided commenting on the unprecedented indictment.

As of Wednesday afternoon, just two of the eight Republicans in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation had spoken publicly about the charges and criticized the Justice Department. Both have endorsed Trump’s reelection campaign.

Other prominent Republicans in the state were quiet, including those who played roles in Trump’s plans to overturn the election outcome in Pennsylvania. But the Pennsylvania GOP appeared unlikely to turn against the former president, as other criminal cases against him have also been met with relative silence — and because Trump remains the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential primary.

Outspoken support did come Wednesday from U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, who represents an eastern swath of Central Pennsylvania and suggested the charges were filed to distract Americans from a Monday congressional hearing featuring a former business associate of Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.

“It’s unbelievable that this is happening in the United States,” Meuser said in an interview on Newsmax, a conservative cable network. “Trump goes up in polls, another frivolous indictment. Biden’s evidence mounts regarding his family scandals, Trump gets indicted. … We have an extremely, extremely corrupt administration in this Biden crime family.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of Western Pennsylvania also weighed in, posting about the indictment on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, writing: “Where is the outrage?!” In 2020, Kelly sued Pennsylvania in an attempt to throw out 2.6 million votes that were cast by mail. The state’s highest court unanimously decided to throw out the challenge.

Late Tuesday, Kelly wrote: “Make no mistake — the two-tiered Biden Justice System has been weaponized against Donald Trump. If it wasn’t for a double standard, there would be no standard at all.”

» READ MORE: Trump indictment: Charges feature former president’s effort to subvert Pennsylvania election results

Some Democrats praised the indictment. U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, from Philadelphia, posted that “no one should be above the law in America” and “that’s especially true when it comes to a violent attempt to overturn a free and fair election.” Rep. Summer Lee, from Allegheny County, tweeted a video of special counsel Jack Smith unveiling the indictment, writing only: “Good.”

Neither of the state’s Democratic senators commented publicly on the charges, perhaps following the lead of Biden, who is vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and has not commented.

The quiet is in some ways unsurprising.

While the four-count indictment carries untold implications for the future of American democracy, it is also the third criminal case brought against Trump in just the last four months, potentially blunting its impact. Most top Pennsylvania Republicans avoided commenting on criminal charges filed against Trump in June in a separate case alleging he mishandled classified documents and obstructed the federal government’s attempts to retrieve them.

Although the charging documents outline an unprecedented fraud scheme, most of the details in the indictment were already known. Some trickled out through news reports over the last 2½ years. Many were published in a more-than-800-page report by the U.S. House special committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. And plenty of Trump’s actions took place in full view of the public.

And while some Pennsylvania voters have signaled they are weary of the Trump show, many others made up their minds on the former president — one way or the other — long ago.

For most Republican lawmakers and elected officials, a third indictment against Trump — coming from federal prosecutors during a Democratic administration — wasn’t going to change their tune on the former president, whether they love him or think it’s time to move on.

» READ MORE: What to know about the Pennsylvania fake electors mentioned in Trump’s third indictment

That’s especially true because Trump appears to be marching to the Republican nomination as he embarks on a third run for the White House. Recent polling shows Trump holds a strong lead nationally among likely Republican primary voters, and a New York Times/Siena College poll found he is neck-and-neck with Biden in a hypothetical rematch.

As for other Pennsylvania officials who were tied up in Trump’s alleged efforts to hold onto power, the ramifications of the indictment are still unknown.

While 20 Pennsylvania Republicans signed on to be part of a slate of false electors at the behest of Trump and his team, they are unlikely to face charges.

The scheme, allegedly orchestrated by Trump and his team, is at the heart of the indictment. But some of the fraudulent electors in Pennsylvania were hesitant and said they would submit their names as electors only if courts sided with Trump in his numerous lawsuits over the election. He lost all of them in Pennsylvania. The caveat may shield them from liability.

Two other top Republicans — U.S. Rep. Scott Perry and State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) — each played roles in the Jan. 6 affair, according to the bipartisan congressional panel. But neither appears central to the charging documents in the criminal case.

Congressional investigators found that Perry, chair of the House Freedom Caucus and an early supporter of the “Stop the Steal” movement, connected Trump to Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer who he said would sanction false claims of voter fraud to block or delay election certification. FBI agents seized Perry’s phone last fall, but his attorney said that the Justice Department informed them that Perry was “not a target of its investigation.”

Perry had not commented on the latest indictment as of Wednesday. In June, he endorsed Trump’s reelection campaign.

» READ MORE: Who is Jeffrey Clark? The Northeast Philly native is identifiable in Trump’s third indictment.

Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor who lost in November, was a key asset for Trump’s team in the Pennsylvania legislature. According to the House report released in December, the Franklin County lawmaker contacted Trump several times through December 2020 and expressed that he wanted to personally pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence on Trump’s behalf.

Mastriano was also not named in the indictment, though prosecutors did highlight a Nov. 25, 2020, unofficial hearing in Gettysburg that he organized alongside Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, during which they purported to uncover election fraud. Giuliani — who is among six unnamed coconspirators — falsely claimed during the hearing that Pennsylvania received more votes by mail than ballots it had issued.

Prosecutors wrote that a campaign staffer later sent a memo calling Giuliani’s claims “just wrong.”

Mastriano had also not commented on the latest indictment as of Wednesday. The lawmaker has for weeks been delivering speeches and making appearances across the state — and making unsubstantiated voter fraud claims — leading insiders to question whether he might be making another run for governor.

Inquirer staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.