Donald Trump Jr. says Trump Organization indictment is 'no different' than Putin's attempted killing of Alexei Navalny

Donald Trump Jr. made an analogy on Fox News Thursday night involving Vladimir Putin.
He said the Trump Organization indictment is "no different" than Putin poisoning "Navatny."
Trump Jr. mispronounced the name of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader.
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Donald Trump Jr. compared the criminal indictment against his father's company to Russian President Vladimir Putin's reported assassination attempt of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whom Trump Jr. incorrectly called "Navatny."

"This is the political persecution of a political enemy," the eldest of former President Donald Trump's children told Fox News on Thursday evening. "This is what Vladimir Putin does. Just ask Navatny."

Trump Jr. also criticized the charges brought against the Trump Organization and its longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg earlier on Thursday, calling them "banana republic stuff."

-Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) July 1, 2021

The Manhattan District Attorney's office on Thursday criminally charged the Trump Organization and Weisselberg for a 15-year tax scheme. Weisselberg, who arrived in handcuffs to the court hearing, pleaded not guilty to the charges listed in a 15-count indictment.

Trump Jr. is an executive vice president of the Trump Organization and helped run the company alongside his brother, Eric Trump, while his father was in office.

No charges have been brought against Trump nor any of his family members, though the investigation is still underway.

Trump Sr. also blasted the indictment, telling the New York Times on Thursday that it's "a terrible thing for our country, and people are very angry about it" and likewise characterizing it as political persecution.

Navalny, Russia's opposition leader, was poisoned and left in a coma last year with what doctors suspect is a Russian nerve agent.

The German doctor who treated Navalny - after Russian doctors denied he was poisoned - suddenly died months later.

As Insider's John Haltiwanger and Tom LoBianco reported in June, Putin's subsequent imprisoning of Navalny turned him into a symbol for dissidents of the authoritarian regime.

Trump Jr. made his comments on "Fox News Primetime," the network's 7 p.m. show featuring a different host each week.

This week's host, Jesse Watters, has made misleading statements and innacurate claims in the past, such as when he baselessly floated the idea that George Floyd's killing by police was "a premeditated hit" that "was executed extremely poorly."

Watters has been a reliable defender and interlocutor for Trump Jr. over the years, often inviting him on his weekend show.

The Fox News weekend host and co-host of "The Five" was one of the few conservatives in Trump Jr.'s corner in 2017 when the New York Times reported on his meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer at Trump Tower, with Watters calling him the true "victim."

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