Manhattan DA seeks to block subpoena from Republican-controlled US House committee News
Office of Debbie Lesko, United States Senate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Manhattan DA seeks to block subpoena from Republican-controlled US House committee

Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg Tuesday requested the US District Court for the Southern District of New York block a subpoena issued by the Republican-controlled US House Judiciary Committee. The subpoena, issued two days after the April 4 arraignment of former President Donald Trump, seeks the testimony of Mark Pomerantz, a former Special Assistant District Attorney who participated in an investigation of Trump and his businesses.

Leaning on US Supreme Court precedent and “[b]asic principles of federalism and common sense,” Bragg urged the federal district court to block the subpoena for two reasons. First, Bragg writes, Congress has no power to oversee state criminal prosecutions. Second, even if the subpoena issued by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) proved generally enforceable, Pomerantz’s testimony contains privileged information.

Following Trump’s March 18 announcement of a coming indictment by the Manhattan DA, the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee demanded communications, documents and testimony from the DA’s office. The committee’s defense of the former president continued in the pre-indictment period in non-legal ways as well. Jordan repeated a racially charged “dog-whistle” against the Manhattan DA and accused Bragg of being “Soros-backed” on the founder of the conservative Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk’s radio show. Bragg’s office received over 1,000 calls since Trump’s announcement–many of which were “threatening and racially charged.”

On the day of Trump’s arraignment, the House Judiciary Committee issued a press release condemning a rumor that Bragg planned to request a gag order against Trump. When the gag order failed to materialize, the committee did not issue another statement.

Following the announcement of Bragg’s suit, Chairman Jim Jordan took to twitter to issue the following statement:

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