Well, it doesn’t sound like the team of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is overly interested in entertaining the GOP majority on the House Judiciary Committee, where chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has been involved in seeking materials and testimony from Bragg related to a potentially forthcoming indictment of Donald Trump.
A new report from the New York Post, which is a right-leaning publication, claims Bragg’s team has repeatedly hung up on majority staff from the committee under Jordan’s leadership. The story from the Post relied on a seemingly secondhand source described as “familiar” with details, although that description could perhaps technically apply to someone actually on the call. Per the publication’s accounting of what happened, the Judiciary staffer got a prompt dial tone after identifying himself in a first call to Bragg’s office. He then tried calling again and that time received a slightly longer but still dismissive response from a second individual. “Your committee has no jurisdiction over us. You’re wrong. Stop calling us with this bullshit,” Bragg’s other staff member said, according to the Post’s account.
It’s unclear if there’s a recording of the conversation, however brief, meaning it’s also not quite certain how close that version of the staff member’s remarks is to what they actually said. The ill-fated calls came a day before Bragg’s team issued a lengthy letter challenging the House Republicans who were seeking such wide-ranging investigative materials, rhetorically leaning in part on the clearly delineated distinctions between the law enforcement powers left up to the states and those available to federal authorities. Jordan has faced wide-ranging criticism for seeking to obtain information on Bragg’s probe, which deals (at least as is relevant here) with the hush money illegally provided to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. As Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) noted in a television interview, it’s not even Bragg who gets the final decision on potential charges. An indictment would need approval from a grand jury.
