By Michael R. Sisak and Farnoush Amiri | Related Press
NEW YORK — Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg sued Rep. Jim Jordan on Tuesday, a unprecedented transfer as he seeks to halt a Home Judiciary Committee inquiry that the prosecutor contends is a “clear marketing campaign to intimidate and assault” him over his indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a choose to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, a Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has or plans to difficulty as a part of an investigation of Bragg’s dealing with of the case, the primary felony prosecution of a former U.S. president.
Bragg’s lawsuit, a forceful escalation after weeks of sparring with Jordan and different Republican lawmakers in letters and media statements, seeks to finish what it says is a “constitutionally harmful fishing expedition” that threatens the sovereignty and sanctity of a state-level prosecution.
“Congress lacks any legitimate legislative objective to interact in a free-ranging marketing campaign of harassment in retaliation for the District Lawyer’s investigation and prosecution of Mr. Trump beneath the legal guidelines of New York,” the lawsuit says, citing the dearth of authority within the Structure for Congress “to supervise, not to mention disrupt, ongoing state legislation felony issues.”
In response, Jordan tweeted Tuesday: “First, they indict a president for no crime. Then they sue to dam congressional oversight once we ask questions concerning the federal funds they are saying they used to do it.”
The Judiciary Committee not too long ago issued a subpoena in search of testimony from a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, who beforehand oversaw the Trump investigation and sparred with Bragg over the route of the probe earlier than leaving the workplace final yr. The committee has additionally sought paperwork and testimony from Bragg and his workplace. Bragg has rejected these requests.
The Home Judiciary Committee is scheduled to carry a listening to in Manhattan on Monday on crime in New York Metropolis and what it alleges are Bragg’s “pro-crime, anti-victim” insurance policies. The D.A.’s workplace, nevertheless, factors to statistics exhibiting that violent crime in Manhattan has dropped since Bragg took workplace in January 2022.
In response, Bragg mentioned that if Jordan, who's from Ohio, “actually cared about public security,” he would journey to among the main cities in his house state, the place crime is reportedly larger than in New York.
Bragg is represented within the lawsuit by Theodore Boutrous, a well known First Modification lawyer who has additionally represented Trump’s estranged niece, Mary Trump, in authorized clashes along with her well-known uncle. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Choose Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee who beforehand served as a federal chapter court docket choose.
Bragg, in his lawsuit, mentioned he’s taking authorized motion “in response to an unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional assault by members of Congress on an ongoing New York State felony prosecution and investigation of former President Donald J. Trump.”
Trump was indicted March 30 on 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise information associated to hush-money funds made through the 2016 marketing campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not responsible at an arraignment final week in Manhattan.
Republicans have been railing in opposition to Bragg even earlier than Trump’s indictment.
Jordan has issued a sequence of letters and subpoenas to people concerned with the case. Pomerantz refused to voluntarily cooperate with the committee’s request final month on the instruction of Bragg’s workplace, citing the continuing investigation.
Jordan sees Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who have been prime deputies tasked with operating the investigation on a day-to-day foundation, as catalysts for Bragg’s choice to maneuver forward with the hush cash case.
Bragg’s lawsuit units up what's an already tenuous combat over the scope and limits of congressional oversight powers into new territory. Home Republicans have argued that as a result of the Manhattan case includes marketing campaign finance and what prosecutors say was a conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election, Congress has direct oversight.
Many anticipated that Jordan would subpoena Bragg by now but it surely seems the forceful back-and-forth between the 2 elected officers have come to a head. Jordan’s committee has come at Bragg exhausting in latest weeks, however a court docket combat over a committee subpoena may impede its momentum and amplify criticism amongst Democrats that the panel is taking part in politics as an alternative of addressing substantive points.
Amiri reported from Washington. Related Press reporter Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.