photo by: Colin E. Braley/AP File

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran gives a victory speech at an election party in Overland Park, Kan., Nov. 8, 2022.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran on Friday declined to label the federal case against former president Donald Trump as unfair, and said the judicial system should be allowed to do its work on the matter.

Following a Lawrence event, Moran — a Kansas Republican — made some of his first public statements about the 37-count indictment that alleges Trump improperly kept intelligence documents and obstructed justice when the government sought their return.

Moran said he would not pass any judgement at this point on whether Trump had broken the law, and was waiting for more facts to emerge before commenting more broadly.

“The way our system works is a prosecutor or a grand jury makes a decision about whether an individual has committed a crime and should be indicted,” Moran said during a brief meeting with reporters. “We have a judicial system whose job it is to determine whether or not a person is guilty and if guilty what the punishment or penalty should be. I leave it to the judiciary to make the decisions.”

Moran said it is important that the justice system act in a nonpolitical way on the Trump case.

“I do hope that whatever is happening in our judiciary system is fair and even across the board,” Moran said. “Politics is not a part of any decision to prosecute or what the penalty should be.”

When asked whether he thought politics had entered into the decision to charge Trump, Moran said he couldn’t yet say.

“I don’t know those facts,” Moran said. “That is something that would be determined by the facts. Nothing I know today gives me that answer.”

Moran also declined to share many of his thoughts on the prospects that his party could have a nominee for president who is under federal indictment.

“The way I look at that is the Republican voters in this case make a determination who their candidate is,” Moran said. “That could or could not be the case. I don’t know.”

Moran, who is in his third term in the Senate, twice voted to acquit Trump on impeachment charges. But in the second impeachment trial that focused on the Jan. 6 riot, Moran did call out Trump’s actions, saying “Trump was wrong to continue to spread allegations of widespread fraud and not immediately discourage the reprehensible and unpatriotic behavior.” But Moran at the time said he voted to acquit Trump because Trump was no longer president at the time of the impeachment trial and Moran did not want to set a precedent that the Senate has jurisdiction to convict a former president.

Moran also did not support Trump and his supporters’ efforts to delay certification of the 2020 election results. Moran was among the Republicans who voted to certify the election results.

In another item discussed by Moran on Friday, the senator said he is unlikely to support new legislation to forgive large amounts of federal student loan debt.

“My general view is people who borrow money, including those who borrow in a federal program, are responsible for its repayment,” Moran said.

The loan forgiveness program, which has been a centerpiece of the Biden administration, has been under legal challenge and opposed by Republican legislators. Moran said the time for the idea had passed.

“The desire to alter those student loans generally revolved around the difficulties that occurred in the economy with COVID,” Moran said. “Our country can’t afford to spend money on COVID when we have such a significant deficit.”

Moran said the country already has some programs in place to help individuals in need with student loan debt.