Manhattan DA Bragg Sues Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee to Block GOP Oversight of Trump Prosecution

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday sued the House Judiciary Committee and chairman Jim Jordan in an attempt to stop them from subpoenaing a lawyer involved in the progressive prosecutor’s probe of former president Trump.

Last week, Jordan summoned for Mark Pomerantz, a former senior attorney in Bragg’s office, to testify on Capitol Hill following public statements he made pressuring his old boss to prosecute Trump. The subpoena came two days after Bragg unsealed an indictment revealing that Trump had been charged with 34 felonies stemming from falsified business records related to hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election.

“Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former Presidents by elected state and local prosecutors, particularly in jurisdictions — like New York County — where the prosecutor is popularly elected and trial-level judges lack life tenure,” Jordan wrote in a Thursday letter.

After spending three years working on the Trump investigation, Pomerantz acrimoniously left the office because of Bragg’s earlier hesitancy to prosecute the former president.

“Chairman Jordan’s demands, including his subpoena to Mr. Pomerantz, seek highly sensitive and confidential local prosecutorial information that belongs to the Office of the District Attorney and the People of New York,” reads Bragg’s lawsuit, obtained by CNN. “Basic principles of federalism and common sense, as well as binding Supreme Court precedent, forbid Congress from demanding it.”

Bragg accused Jordan and the committee of launching an “intimidation, retaliation, and obstruction” campaign against a state prosecution process in violation of federalism. The subpoena, the lawsuit said, was an “unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress.”

Congress does not have the authority to conduct oversight of state criminal prosecutions, Bragg argued. Jordan’s request for the district attorney’s former special assistant’s testimony and warnings that the GOP majority will hold Bragg accountable is an “affront to state sovereignty,” the lawsuit said.

Jordan and Trump’s characterization of Bragg as a district attorney who’s been bankrolled by progressive financier George Soros, whose money is behind many left-wing organizations and initiatives, is threatening, the lawsuit claimed.

Bragg asked the court to block enforcement of the subpoena of Pomerantz. The legal filing reiterated that Trump has legal recourse, therefore making Jordan’s intervention unwarranted.

“Like any other defendant, Mr. Trump is entitled to challenge these charges in court. He can avail himself of all the processes and protections that New York State’s robust criminal procedure affords,” the lawsuit said.