Manhattan’s top prosecutor sues Republicans over Trump case “intimidation.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sued Republican U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan on Tuesday to cease a “campaign of intimidation” against the criminal prosecution of former President Donald Trump in New York.
The complaint seeks to stop Jordan’s Republican-dominated House Judiciary Committee from subpoenaing Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor who oversaw the Manhattan district attorney’s multi-year Trump inquiry.
Democrat Bragg called the subpoena an illegal “incursion” into a state criminal matter as retribution for prosecuting Trump in the first indictment of a former president.
In the Manhattan federal court complaint, Bragg’s attorneys stated that Chairman Jordan and the committee were “engaging in a campaign of intimidation, retribution, and obstruction.”
Later Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil scheduled a hearing on April 19. Jordan had until April 17 to answer Bragg’s allegation.
Last Monday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying company documents to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to purchase porn star Stormy Daniels’s silence before the 2016 election about their alleged romance.
Republicans perceive Bragg’s indictment as a political stunt to influence the 2024 presidential race, where Trump is running again.
They also questioned the district attorney’s use of federal funding to investigate Trump.
“First, they indict a president for no crime,” Jordan tweeted Tuesday. Then, when we challenge their use of government cash, they sue to prevent legislative oversight.
Bragg’s office told the committee it spent $5,000 in federal monies investigating Trump and his family firm from 2019 to 2021.
In the past 15 years, the agency secured $1 billion in asset forfeiture for the government.
The first Black Manhattan district attorney, Bragg, has accused Trump of threatening New York authorities with “violent and racial venom.”
He highlighted Trump’s now-deleted social media post of him holding a baseball bat near Bragg’s head and another one in which he labeled Bragg a “beast.”
The lawsuit alleged the words had a “powerful effect” and that Bragg got death threats from Trump fans and a strange white powder parcel.
Trump’s lawyers did not comment immediately.
Pomerantz departed the District Attorney’s office in early 2022 when Bragg took over and opted not to indict Trump for his financial misdeeds.
Pomerantz wrote a book criticizing the judgment this year.
He also claimed prosecutors considered charging Trump for hush payments but worried their innovative legal argument would fail in court.
Jordan claimed Pomerantz’s public remarks demonstrated that Bragg’s prosecution of Trump was political, even if Bragg stated his case was not ready.
Bragg’s attorneys argued that rejecting the subpoena wouldn’t hurt House Republicans since Congress has no control over state charges.
He also suggested Republicans may tell voters they don’t like his argument against Trump.
Bragg’s office argued that preventing a jury trial would “undermine the interests of justice and permanently harm New York’s sovereign power.”
On Monday, the Judiciary Committee announced a “field hearing” in New York next week to discuss “an uptick in violent crime” they blame on Bragg’s policies.
Bragg said NYC homicides, shootings, burglaries, and robberies are lower this year than in 2022.
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