by WASHINGTON — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and asked a court to block elements of the congressional investigation into his case against former President Donald Trump.
Calling it an “unprecedented and unconstitutional brazen attack” of an ongoing investigation, Bragg said in the lawsuit that allowing Jordan’s demands, including the subpoena of former assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz, would cause “imminent and irreparable harm if secret and privileged material is forced to be disclosed”. .”
Bragg’s lawsuit asked the court to block Jordan’s Pomerantz subpoena. Jordan, R-Ohio, wants Pomerantz to testify as part of the judicial panel’s investigation into Trump’s impeachment. The former president pleaded not guilty last week to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his role in secret payments made toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.
“President Jordan’s subpoena is an unconstitutional attempt to undermine an ongoing felony criminal investigation and prosecution in New York,” Bragg said in a statement Tuesday. “As our complaint details, this is unprecedented and unlawful interference by Congress that lacks any legal merit and challenges the basic tenets of federalism.”
Bragg is also suing Pomerantz “to protect the interests and privileges of the District Attorney’s Office and in light of the District Attorney’s Office’s instructions to Mr. Pomerantz not to provide any information or materials related to his work at the District Attorney’s Office in response to the subpoena.” “
In response, Jordan tweeted that the lawsuit seeks to block congressional oversight.
“First, they accuse a president without any crime,” he said. wrote. “Then they sue to block congressional oversight when we ask questions about the federal funds they say they used to do it.”
Pomerantz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit says that beginning in March, Jordan launched a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” Bragg, “demanding confidential documents and testimony from the district attorney himself, as well as his current and former employees and officers.”
Bragg’s office argued that “basic principles of federalism and common sense” as well as Supreme Court precedent prohibit Congress from requiring “highly sensitive and confidential local prosecution information.”
Congress has no power to oversee state criminal proceedings or the power to issue subpoenas “for the personal aggrandizement of investigators or to punish those investigated,” the lawsuit says.
Pomerantz’s subpoena of Jordan last week “is no less an affront to state sovereignty than a subpoena of the district attorney himself,” he continued.
The lawsuit is the culmination of a week-long dispute between Bragg and Jordan, who issued the subpoena to Pomerantz two days after Trump was charged with 34 felony counts. In response, Bragg said the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee was trying to “undermine” the criminal case against the former president by seeking testimony from Pomerantz.
Jordan said last week that Pomerantz’s previous role in the district attorney’s office leading the investigation into Trump’s finances puts him in a “unique position to provide information that is relevant and necessary” to his committee’s investigation. about Bragg’s impeachment of Trump. Jordan argued that Pomerantz had already shared information publicly, in a book that was published in February, as well as in media interviews.
In addition to asking the court to declare Pomerantz’s subpoena invalid, Bragg also asked in the lawsuit to declare any future subpoenas “on the district attorney himself or any of his current or former employees or officers” invalid and unconstitutional.
Jordan had also requested testimony last week from Matthew Colangelo, lead counsel for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Separately, Bragg’s office criticized Republicans Monday after the House Judiciary Committee announced it would hold a hearing on the crime in New York City. Republican lawmakers have repeatedly claimed that the Manhattan district attorney has been too busy investigating Trump and is not doing enough to combat the violence.
