I don't agree with what they're doing to former [US] president Trump," says President Lopez Obrador, suggesting Donald Trump was indicted to stop him running for president in 2024.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has criticised criminal charges against Donald Trump, suggesting that they were politically motivated to hurt his 2024 election prospects.
"Supposedly legal matters should not be used for purposes of electoral politics," Lopez Obrador told reporters on Wednesday, a day after the former US president pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to alleged hush-money paid to an adult film star.
"That's why I don't agree with what they're doing to former president Trump," Lopez Obrador added during one of his daily press briefings, in which he often opines on wide-ranging topics.
He described the charges against 76-year-old Trump, who has already announced another White House bid, as a "smear campaign."
It is the second time in recent weeks that Lopez Obrador, 69, has come out in defence of Trump.
On March 21, he had suggested that if Trump was indicted it would be to stop him running for president next year.
"It should be the people who decide," said Lopez Obrador, who said he could not say whether Trump was guilty or not.
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