House Judiciary Subpoenas Ex-Manhattan Prosecutor Over Trump Case: ‘You Have No Basis to Decline’
Chair of the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jim Jordan on Thursday issued a subpoena for former Manhattan District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Mark Pomerantz as part of their inquiry into D.A. Alvin Bragg’s case against ex-president Donald Trump.
Pomerantz is one of two former prosecutors the GOP wants to grill, both of whom left the Manhattan office in 2022 and, as the New York Times writes, “were critical of Mr. Bragg’s initial reluctance to move forward with charges against Mr. Trump.”
Jordan’s cover letter says Bragg’s “unprecedented prosecutorial conduct” in moving forward with the hush money case “requires oversight,” and Pomerantz’s “unique role” in the Manhattan investigation makes him “uniquely situated to provide information that is relevant and necessary to inform the Committee’s oversight.”
The Justice Department wasn’t going to bring this case.
The previous District Attorney Cy Vance wasn’t going to bring this case.
And even Alvin Bragg himself, when he first gets elected, didn’t want to bring the case.
But you know who did want to bring it? Mark Pomerantz.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) April 6, 2023
“Rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives authorizes the Committee on the Judiciary to conduct oversight of criminal justice matters to inform potential legislation,” it says. “Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former Presidents by elected state and local prosecutors, and local prosecutors, particularly in jurisdictions — like New York County — where the prosecutor is popularly elected and trial-level judges lack life tenure.”
The letter pointedly rejects the idea of non-cooperation.
“Although the New York County District Attorney’s Office has directed you not to cooperate with our oversight, you have already discussed many of the topics relevant to our oversight in a book you wrote and published in February 2023, as well as in several public interviews to promote your book,” it says. “As a result, you have no basis to decline to testify about matters before the Committee that you have already discussed in your book and/or on a prime-time television program with an audience in the millions, including on the basis of any purported duty of confidentiality or privilege interest.”
