Trump calls for New York terror suspect to get death penalty
"NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!" Trump tweeted late Wednesday night.
The tweet comes one day after 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov steered a truck into cyclists and pedestrians down a Manhattan bike path before being taken into police custody. On Wednesday, Trump called for harsh punishment for Saipov, describing the US justice system as "a joke and a laughing stock" and saying he was considering sending the suspect to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
But Wednesday night's tweet was a startling escalation of rhetoric in an investigation that has barely begun, let alone reach sentencing. Federal prosecutors brought terrorism charges against the suspect, an Uzbeki immigrant, on Wednesday.
Moments after the tweet, political observers and ethics experts criticized the president for possibly jeopardizing a potential legal case against Saipov. Trump's comments have played into legal cases before - just this week, a military judge said he would likely opt for a lighter sentence for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his Army post and was captured by the Taliban in 2009, in light of Trump's past suggestions that he should be executed.
"Mr. President, we all know he should get the death penalty. But when *you* say it, it makes it harder for DOJ to make that happen," tweeted Andrew McCarthy, the former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.