Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr. fired off a warning shot to congressional Republicans on Thursday, telling them to stop interfering with his office’s ongoing secret grand jury considering criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.
In a letter, Bragg’s office told three Republican chairmans of congressional committees that their recent demand for details about the Trump investigation are “an unlawful incursion into New York's sovereignty.”
The letter was addressed to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), who leads the Committee on House Administration, and Rep. James Comer Jr., (R-KY), who heads up the House Oversight Committee.
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The Republicans are trying to stifle the DA’s investigation into how Trump paid the porn star Stormy Daniels hush money to keep quiet about a past sexual affair on the eve of the 2016 presidential election—keeping it secret from election records by routing the payment through the Trump Organization, a potential violation of campaign finance rules. The Department of Justice already investigated the matter and prosecuted Trump’s fixer in the deal, Michael Cohen, but did not criminally charge Trump himself—although he was still in the White House at the time and in a position of power over the DOJ.
All three Republicans signed on to a letter on Monday that demanded to see “documents and communications” between the DA’s office and the DOJ, which could shed light on how the DA decided to pick up the baton and venture forward when the feds would not. They also asked for exchanges between the DA and two former prosecutors who quit in protest when Bragg wouldn’t move forward on the case last year, potentially revealing weaknesses in the case.
As is par for the course in the MAGA age, the three Republicans called the DA’s Trump investigation a “politically motivated” exercise and described the looming indictment as Bragg’s decision “to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.”
The letter, signed by the DA’s top lawyer, Leslie B. Dubeck, cited the “critical need to maintain the integrity and independence of state criminal law enforcement from federal interference.” But she offered to have Bragg’s prosecutors meet with congressional staff to address some questions—as long as they don’t mess with the investigation itself.
“While the DA’s Office will not allow a congressional investigation to impede the exercise of New York's sovereign police power, this office will always treat a fellow government entity with due respect,” she wrote.
