Congress is surely empowered to examine whether any federal funds it transfers to states are being used for their intended purposes. But that authority does not make the federal government overlord of the state governments. We have a system of dual sovereignty, with vertical separation of federal and state power that members of Congress are bound to respect. Congress did not create state and municipal district attorneys’ offices, as it did the United States Justice Department. It does not have the power to oversee those offices.
Consequently, regardless of how abusively Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg has wielded his law-enforcement powers within the parameters of his jurisdiction, if he has not attempted to interfere directly in the legitimate operations of the federal government — and he has not — then House committees have no business demanding that he appear before them and explain himself.
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