New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks after former US President Donald Trump appears in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, following his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury following an investigation into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in New York City, April 4, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday filed a federal case seeking to block the subpoena of the House Judiciary Committee issued by chairman Rep. Jim Jordan is a former prosecutor who played a key role in Bragg’s criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump.
The suit also asks a judge to rule that any potential future subpoenas by the Judiciary Committee or Jordan on Bragg himself, or others among his current and former employees, “would be invalid, unenforceable, unconstitutional .”
Bragg’s suit escalates a battle that began when Jordan, R-Ohio, and other Trump allies in the House recently opened an inquiry into the DA’s prosecution of Trump seeking documents and other material. .
The suit calls that inquiry an “unprecedented and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress on an ongoing New York State criminal prosecution and investigation of former President Donald J. Trump.”
Later Tuesday, a magistrate judge denied Bragg’s request for a temporary restraining order against the subpoena issued to Mark Pomerantz, a former special assistant DA.
But that judge has scheduled an April 19 hearing in Manhattan federal court on his challenge to the subpoena. The hearing was set the day before Pomerantz’s testimony was to occur pursuant to the subpoena.
Bragg’s 50-page complaint says “Congress has no power to oversee state criminal prosecution,” and accuses Jordan and his committee of engaging in “a campaign of intimidation, retaliation and obstruction.”
The suit names as defendants Jordan, the Judiciary Committee and Pomerantz.
Pomerantz and another prosecutor left the DA’s office in early 2022 after Bragg indicated he would not pursue an indictment against Trump in connection with false statements about valuations of real estate assets owned by Trump Organization. Pomerantz wrote a book about his work on the probe.
Jordan and the committee served Pomerantz with a subpoena last week, two days after Trump was arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on a grand jury indictment alleging 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The prosecution, the first of any US president, former or otherwise, is related to a $130,000 hush-hush payment made by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Bragg’s suit says the subpoena, and Jordan’s other requests for information, “requested highly sensitive and confidential local prosecution information belonging to the District Attorney’s Office and the People of New York.”
“Basic principles of federalism and common sense, as well as the existing Supreme Court
precedent, prohibit Congress from requiring it,” the suit said.
Bragg argues that the subpoena for Pomerantz “serves no legitimate legislative purpose,” and even if it did it would still be unenforceable because it could allow the Judiciary Committee to seek secret grand jury material and other investigative information. which is protected by law.
Jordan quickly responded to Bragg in a tweet.
“First, they’re accusing a president of no crime,” Jordan wrote. “Then, they sue to block congressional oversight when we ask about federal funds they say they used to.”