In an deal with to Republicans in North Carolina on Friday evening, his first public remarks because the unsealing of federal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. DeSantis trod fastidiously and danced rapidly previous the topic.

Previewing how he would possibly criticize the Justice Department’s case with out letting Mr. Trump solely off the hook, he supplied a considerably backhanded protection of the now twice-indicted former president — whose loyal followers Mr. DeSantis is in search of to keep away from angering — by drawing on his personal experiences as a Navy lawyer.

Seeming to muse aloud, Mr. DeSantis requested what the Navy would have performed to him had he taken categorised paperwork whereas in army service. “I would have been court-martialed in a New York minute,” he mentioned, in a riff on Mr. Trump’s hometown.

While Mr. DeSantis made his comment in reference to the truth that Hillary Clinton didn’t face fees over her use of a non-public e mail server whereas she was secretary of state, his feedback may simply as simply have utilized to Mr. Trump. And they recommended that he believed each Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton ought to have confronted fees — or neither.

“Is there a different standard for a Democrat secretary of state versus a former Republican president?” he requested. “I think there needs to be one standard of justice in this country. Let’s enforce it on everybody and make sure we all know the rules.”

(A yearslong inquiry by the State Department found that Mrs. Clinton had not intentionally or systemically mishandled categorised data.)

The nature of Mr. Trump’s federal indictment, which emerged in full view on Friday, left Mr. DeSantis and a number of other different Republican presidential contenders ever extra wobbly on the tightrope they’re strolling, attempting to defend a rival accused of cavalierly and illegally protecting delicate paperwork about U.S. nuclear packages and the nation’s vulnerabilities to army assault.

Many of those candidates now discover themselves within the difficult position of rallying round Mr. Trump at the same time as they search to distinguish themselves from his legacy whereas he continues to dominate them within the polls.

“This is not how justice should be pursued in our country,” Nikki Haley, the previous governor of South Carolina and Mr. Trump’s United Nations ambassador, said on Twitter. “The American people are exhausted by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards and vendetta politics.”

Such warning struck a pointy distinction with the 2 Republican candidates most prepared to criticize Mr. Trump.

Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey referred to as the indictment “devastating,” telling CNN that “the facts that are laid out here are damning.” And in an interview with The New York Times, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas pushed back towards claims that Mr. Trump was being handled unfairly and reiterated his perception that he ought to drop out of the race.

“To pejoratively say this is the result of a political prosecution is not in service to our justice system,” Mr. Hutchinson mentioned, including, “It would be doing a disservice to the country if we did not treat this case seriously.”

Jack Smith, the particular counsel main the investigation, urged the general public on Friday to know the “scope and gravity” of the fees.

Mr. Trump is anticipated to look in Federal District Court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon to face fees together with willfully retaining nationwide protection secrets and techniques in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and conspiracy to impede justice. On his Truth Social web site, the previous president referred to as Mr. Smith “deranged.”

Some voters who attended Mr. DeSantis’s speech in Greensboro, N.C., recommended they had been rising weary of the controversy surrounding Mr. Trump, at the same time as they expressed a perception that the fees had been politically motivated. (Mr. Trump additionally faces charges in state court in New York for his alleged function in paying hush cash to a porn star.)

“Even if he gets elected again, they’re never going to leave him alone. So what’s the point?” mentioned Mary Noble, 70, who voted twice for Mr. Trump however has not made up her thoughts within the 2024 major. “He’ll never be effective. That’s my fear.”

Tom Wassel, who sells air air pollution management gear and in addition supported Mr. Trump in each earlier elections, didn’t thoughts that Mr. DeSantis had touched on the indictment solely briefly, and never very forcefully.

“I want him to talk about what he’s going to run on,” Mr. Wassel, 70, mentioned.

Beyond Mr. Christie and Mr. Hutchinson, Republicans operating for president had been largely supportive of Mr. Trump, with some arguing that the prosecution amounted to a rare and unfair political vendetta and one going as far as to bluntly promise to pardon him.

Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who has positioned himself to safe the backing of Mr. Trump’s supporters if the previous president’s authorized issues derail his political comeback, mentioned, “I commit to pardon Trump promptly on Jan. 20, 2025.”

In a radio interview on Friday earlier than the indictment was unsealed, former Vice President Mike Pence appeared to distinction Mr. Trump’s conduct along with his personal diligent return of classified documents to the National Archives. But he added that he was “deeply troubled to see this indictment move forward” and took a swipe at what he referred to as “years of politicization” of the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the Republican nominee for president in 2012 and a number one critic of Mr. Trump, was one of many few G.O.P. officeholders to sentence him, saying the previous president had “brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so.”

Jonathan Weisman contributed reporting from Chicago, and Luke Broadwater from Washington.