Washington — House Republicans are calling for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to reply to questions ahead of Congress and switch over paperwork associated with a doable indictment of former President Donald Trump stemming from bills made to an grownup movie famous person ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
In a letter to Bragg on Monday, the GOP chairs of 3 House committees accused him of getting ready to “engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority,” specifically the indictment of a former president and declared presidential candidate for the 2024 election. They mentioned they be expecting him to testify to lawmakers about charging Trump, if and when he does.
“This indictment comes after years of your office searching for a basis — any basis — on which to bring charges, ultimately settling on a novel legal theory untested anywhere in the country and one that federal authorities declined to pursue,” wrote Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Bryan Steil of Wisconsin. “If these reports are accurate, your actions will erode confidence in the evenhanded application of justice and unalterably interfere in the course of the 2024 presidential election.”
The trio of Republicans accused Bragg of pursuing a “politically motivated prosecution,” and mentioned this kind of determination will require “congressional scrutiny about how public safety funds appropriated by Congress are implemented by local law-enforcement agencies.” Jordan is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Comer leads the House Oversight Committee and Steil chairs the Committee on House Administration.
The lawmakers are in search of information of communications between the New York County District Attorney’s Office and the Justice Department or different federal regulation enforcement businesses associated with the investigation of Trump. They additionally need paperwork and communications relating to Trump exchanged by way of Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, who labored within the district lawyer’s workplace, and fabrics relating to the usage of federal finances by way of the district lawyer’s workplace.
Dunne and Pomerantz labored at the sweeping prison fraud investigation into the Trump Organization and resigned from the district lawyer’s workplace in January 2022. In his resignation letter, Pomerantz mentioned Trump dedicated “numerous felony violations” and must be prosecuted, according to the Washington Post.Â
“The facts of this matter have not changed since 2018 and no new witnesses have emerged,” Jordan, Comer and Steil wrote, noting that whilst the Justice Department closed the case in 2019, the investigation from the Manhattan district lawyer’s probe won momentum this yr and a grand jury was once convened in January. “The only intervening factor, it appears, was President Trump’s announcement that he would be a candidate for president in 2024.”
Jordan chairs the House Judiciary Committee, Comer leads the Oversight and Accountability Committee, and Steil is the chairman of the Administration Committee. Bragg’s workplace didn’t in an instant go back a request for remark.
Trump claimed in a post on his social media platform Truth Social over the weekend that he’s anticipating to be arrested Tuesday on fees stemming from a $130,000 cost made to grownup movie famous person Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election and the alleged falsification of similar industry information to cover marketing campaign finance violations. The former president also referred to as for his supporters to protest his arrest. He has denied all wrongdoing and claims the investigation focused on him is politically motivated.
In reaction to news of a possible indictment, many Republicans have jumped to Trump’s protection and accused Bragg of pursuing a political schedule. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy additionally indicated the GOP-led House would examine Bragg, tweeting that Republicans would probe “any use of federal funds that are used to facilitate the perversion of justice by Soros-backed DA’s across the country.”
“The legal theory underlying your reported prosecution appears to be tenuous and untested. Bringing charges for falsifying business records is ordinarily a misdemeanor subject to a two-year statute of limitations, which would have expired long ago,” Jordan, Comer and Steil wrote Monday.
The 3 additionally criticized Bragg for depending on Michael Cohen, Trump’s former private legal professional and “fixer,” as a key witness within the case and mentioned he can’t be regarded as “unbiased and credible.”
Cohen is a central determine in Bragg’s investigation and has just lately testified two times ahead of the grand jury impaneled to inspect the cost to Daniels for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. Cohen pleaded to blame to federal fees, together with marketing campaign finance violations associated with the cost to Daniels, and went to jail. He has mentioned he was once performing on behalf of Trump.