Team Trump Getting Ready To Attack Ron DeSantis Over Record On Child Pornography And Such

Former President Donald Trump’s team is preparing opposition research against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in order to attack his record on child pornography and other issues.

While DeSantis has yet to announce his presidential run formally, Trump has been training his fire on DeSantis for months as the Florida governor cemented his status as the only candidate in the GOP field with any shot at contending with Trump.

So far, the barrage has consisted of trash talk on the tamer side of the Trump curve, but in case anyone is wondering how ugly things will get, Politico reports that Trumpworld is prepping an oppo file on DeSantis that will aim to attack his record prosecuting child pornography cases and more:

Trump’s team and his allied PAC are preparing an expansive opposition research file by poring over DeSantis’ record as a prosecutor, member of Congress, and Florida governor. Among the items a Trump-allied group has drilled into is DeSantis’ record while serving as an assistant U.S. Attorney before running for congressional office, with plans to accuse him of being an “extremely lenient prosecutor” in cases involving, among other things, child pornography.

Politico found some colleagues eager to defend DeSantis:

The preparations are the latest sign of a bruising primary fight to come, one that could make the 2016 primary fireworks look tame in comparison. It’s a high-risk, high-reward play. The child pornography charges, for one, mirror those used by Republican Senators against then Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. And in the case of DeSantis, his contemporaries have insisted that the plea deals he signed were not unordinary.

“To make any allegation that he was soft on any kind of case, especially child pornography, is just ludicrous. It defies the logic of what I saw in the office or what my office would let happen,” Ronald Henry, a retired assistant U.S. Attorney who served as supervisor to DeSantis when he was special assistant U.S. Attorney, told POLITICO. “He wasn’t a lone wolf on his own making deals without the entire weight of the U.S. Attorney’s office overseeing what he was doing.”

The issue was also raised during the 2018 governor’s race, with contemporaries defending DeSantis along similar lines.