Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is among those concerned about a demanding letter recently sent to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg from three leading Republicans in the House, including Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), who leads the Judiciary Committee in the chamber.
The letter responds to some of the latest developments in Bragg’s ongoing criminal investigation involving Trump, particularly revelations that charges for the ex-president himself could be coming soon — as in within days or this week. Jordan and the other Republican signatories, including Rep. James Comer (Ky.) of the Oversight Committee and Rep. Bryan Steil (Wisc.) of the Administration Committee, demanded huge caches of materials from Bragg and his office, like all of Mark Pomerantz’s and Carey Dunne’s communications — or other available records — relating to Trump.
Pomerantz and Dunne worked on the district attorney’s team until leaving in evident frustration with Bragg’s hesitation to pursue charges against Trump — and sharing their missives could reveal the inner workings of the grand jury investigation Bragg and his predecessor have led, exposing investigative practices and ground to punitive scrutiny.
“Donald Trump has found a new criminal defense team to represent him: The firm of Jordan, Comer and Steil,” Schiff quipped. “Seeking to interfere with the potential prosecution of their party leader by demanding “discovery,” this broadside is another attack on the rule of law.”
The investigation in which those Republicans are seeking to basically interfere is outside the federal government and covers someone who currently is also outside the federal government, and sure, melodramatic accusations of supposedly political bias on Bragg’s part have been thrown around, but acting like that kind of ulterior motive is just a given is deceptive. In a somewhat related albeit still very separate case against Trump for his family business practices from New York state Attorney General Letitia James, arguments she’s supposedly been acting from actionable political animus have lost in court — repeatedly, and that case continues moving forward.
Besides his leadership of the Judiciary Committee, Jordan is also helming a panel in this Congress meant to examine the so-called weaponization of the federal government. At a hearing of that subcommittee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) noted some of the real “weaponization” that could be investigated but seemed likely to go without much examination from the GOP majority, including retaliatory actions against Michael Cohen in the course of his criminal case and Trump’s repeated firings of oversight officials from various rhetorical corners of the government.
Donald Trump has found a new criminal defense team to represent him: The firm of Jordan, Comer and Steil.
Seeking to interfere with the potential prosecution of their party leader by demanding “discovery,” this broadside is another attack on the rule of law.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 20, 2023
