Predictably, Republicans in the House like Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) are still focusing on the criminal investigation in the office of the Manhattan District Attorney into Donald Trump and certain circumstances around him that recently culminated in charges.
Donald’s charges relate to falsified business records that were meant to conceal reimbursements for the hush money given to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election, although the underlying investigation may be continuing and could potentially produce other charges, since what was already known of prosecutors’ interest extended beyond simply that area. Jordan has now issued a subpoena for Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the district attorney’s office who before leaving that employ worked on the Trump probe. Jordan and fellow Republicans leading key committees in the House had already sought copies of communications involving Pomerantz and related to the probe, alongside accompanying documents and the same categories of materials tied to Carey Dunne, who’d also worked on the Trump probe.
“Jordan’s subpoena of a former prosecutor in the DA’s office is a clear abuse of the committee’s power,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said online Thursday. “There is no legislative purpose in trying to interfere in the prosecution of Donald Trump. Only a political and illegitimate objective. That undermines the rule of law.”
Throughout the push from Jordan and other Republicans for details on the Trump probe, the team led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been largely resistant, questioning the supposedly general authority held by those legislative leaders to look into the situation at all, considering well-established principles of legal sovereignty for New York authorities in handling matters of law enforcement alongside restrictions on Congress operating in any law enforcement capacity. Leslie Dubeck, a lawyer with Bragg, also questioned claimed justifications in legislative functions for the chamber, noting the GOP Congressmen only brought up a Constitutionally questionable idea of legislatively shielding former presidents from prosecutions of the sort Trump is now facing well into their contacts with the New York prosecutor’s team.
“You did not identify any such legislative purpose in your initial letter, suggesting that your proposal to “insulate current and former presidents” from state criminal investigations is a baseless pretext to interfere with our Office’s work,” Dubeck told the Republicans. “Indeed, we doubt that Congress would have authority to place a single private citizen–including a former president or candidate for president–above the law or to grant him unique protections, such as removal to federal court, that are unavailable to every other criminal defendant.”
Jordan’s subpoena of a former prosecutor in the DA’s office is a clear abuse of the committee’s power.
There is no legislative purpose in trying to interfere in the prosecution of Donald Trump.
Only a political and illegitimate objective.
That undermines the rule of law.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 6, 2023
