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Julia Conley, Common Dreams
Lawyers for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has launched numerous attempts to interfere with the prosecution of former Republican President Donald Trump.
The lawsuit was filed a week after Bragg’s office charged Trump with 34 felony counts stemming from his alleged “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.
Jordan responded to the charges by issuing a subpoena to a former investigator in Bragg’s office, Mark Pomerantz, calling on him to provide the Ohio Republican’s committee with a closed-door deposition about the probe into Trump’s alleged crimes.
The subpoena amounted to a “brazen and unconstitutional attack” by a close ally of Trump who is intent on waging a “transparent campaign to intimidate” the district attorney’s office, Bragg’s lawyers said in the lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York.
Bragg is seeking to bar Jordan from enforcing the subpoena and from demanding testimony from anyone else, including the district attorney himself.
“Rather than allowing the criminal process to proceed in the ordinary course, Chairman Jordan and the committee are participating in a campaign of intimidation, retaliation, and obstruction,” reads the lawsuit.
In addition to the subpoena, Jordan—along with Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), who respectively chair the House Oversight, and Administration committees—sent letters last month to Bragg’s office demanding documents regarding the investigation into Trump, claiming the House Judiciary Committee has the authority to oversee the case.
“Usually Republicans want a weak federal government,” Maya Wiley, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said Tuesday. “Seems now they want a centralized system.”
Jordan is also planning to hold a “field hearing” on April 17 in New York to investigate whether Bragg has inappropriately focused on prosecuting Trump—a 2024 presidential candidate—while failing to address crime in the city, which is down this year, according to The New York Times.
“House Republicans’ attempts to interfere in the prosecution of their political ally Donald Trump by a local DA are unprecedented and dangerous,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It’s good that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is not taking this lying down.”
