As a Manhattan grand jury works through a potential indictment against former President Donald Trump, Republicans are figuring out who to blame if charges are brought against their perpetual party leader.
Predictably, Republicans won’t blame Trump, even though he’s admitted to authorizing hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels after he had an affair with her in 2006. And it doesn’t appear as if Republicans will blame Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-lawyer who helped concoct the hush-money scheme in 2016. And, for the most part, it won’t be President Joe Biden, either, as he’s staying away from this as far as possible.
Instead, Republicans appear apt to blame everything on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who’s overseeing the case against Trump. He’s their bogeyman.
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With a lingering back-and-forth on whether Bragg would or should testify before Congress about the case, Republican lawmakers aren’t growing more cordial. They’re weighing their options—and floating subpoenas—marking an unprecedented consideration for Congress to interfere in a local investigation.
But of course, they say it’s not without reason.
“It is pretty clearly a wrongful persecution of a free American citizen who happens to be the former president of the United States,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), who’s already endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
“Because of those circumstances, I think it’s appropriate for Congress to inquire into what drove that decision making process for Bragg,” Higgins said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has already called for committees to probe Bragg’s investigation. House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY), Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Administration Chair Brian Steil (R-WI) have requested testimony and documents from Bragg, telling him in a letter that he is “about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.”
Bragg has signaled he wouldn’t comply with GOP attempts to haul him before Congress. Over the weekend, the trio suggested Bragg could be subpoenaed if he sticks to that.
“When he says he’s not going to cooperate with Congress, unfortunately for Mr. Bragg, he doesn't have the luxury of determining whether or not he can comply with congressional requests, because he crossed over two levels of government, from the local level to the federal level, to try to prosecute something that clearly if there was a reason for prosecution, it should be done by the Department of Justice,” Comer said on CNN Sunday.
Throughout the halls of Congress, and particularly within the House Republican conference, those about Bragg have been growing. But lawmakers are still pondering how—and when—to strike.
Higgins for instance says if Republicans do take action against Bragg, timing would be everything. He said lawmakers “need to let the president's legal team function unencumbered from congressional inquiry at this time.”
The congressman suggested that potentially subpoenaing Bragg “would be an interesting conversation amongst my colleagues,” but that “the appropriate timing of something like that should include consideration whether or not that case is moving towards permanent closure, and allow that to happen.”
Then there’s an entirely other end of Republican rhetoric, like that from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who’s said “it’s time to arrest Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for prosecutorial misconduct after hiding hundreds of pages of exculpatory evidence.” Greene hasn’t supplied evidence for those claims, but she has further insisted that Bragg is “breaking the law and trying to incite civil unrest.”
While Greene is, as usual, furthest to the right on the issue, the standard GOP approach seems to be demanding that Bragg testify before Congress—noting that, if he doesn’t cooperate, he should be subpoenaed.
Earlier this year, House Republicans announced they would use their newfound majority to launch a number of broad investigations, including one into the “weaponization” of government. The Bragg-focus fits into their rhetoric, and would theoretically give the investigations a focus they’ve largely lacked.
Democrats say Bragg is being used as a sort of scapegoat for the GOP—and that Republicans are searching for someone to blame for Trump’s apparent wrongdoings.
“I think it’s a gross abuse of power by a congressional committee under the official authority of the House of Representatives to intervene in an ongoing criminal investigation in a local jurisdiction,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who served as lead counsel on the first impeachment inquiry against Trump.
“Congress very clearly does not have jurisdiction over this nor is it appropriate for Congress to try to influence an ongoing investigation,” Goldman added.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, said she expects Republicans would continue to defend Trump “no matter what his problem was.”
“It’s gross honestly,” she said of members targeting Bragg.
Over in the Senate, some ardent Trump supporters think the Republican brouhaha over Bragg has its place. Republicans there are in the minority and don’t have power to go after Bragg in committee. But they’re cheering on House colleagues—even while having some doubts about what can be accomplished there, too.
“I think it's always useful to provide some oversight. So I know that—I understand the House is looking into it. That seems like a good thing. I don’t know what their actual, you know, what control they have. They might just be able to surface some good information which could be helpful,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, (R-OH), who’s already endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid.
Asked if he’d support a subpoena for Bragg, Vance responded, “He certainly has made some very questionable prosecutorial decisions. So I think him testifying before Congress would probably be a good thing.”
Others like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who’s also already issued support for Trump’s 2024 bid, said he’s going to leave any Bragg antics to the House.
“I’m not going to pursue that myself. But if they can establish some connection between what the federal government does and what he’s doing, I think that’d be fine,” Graham said.
While Graham seems content to let House Republicans handle this one, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has openly supported McCarthy’s call for a probe into Bragg’s investigation.
Bragg’s office, in a previous statement, said it is “not appropriate for Congress to interfere with pending local investigations” and that the inquiry by federal lawmakers “serves only to hinder, disrupt and undermine the legitimate work of our dedicated prosecutors.”
Trump earlier this month posted on his beloved Truth Social that he expected to be arrested on March 21. But the week went by without his prophecy coming to fruition. This week, a new round of standby for an indictment began, before reports emerged that the jury assigned to Trump’s case will soon be on a month-long hiatus. That could delay any indictment of the former president until late April at a minimum.
Jury breaks can be walked back—meaning Bragg could still force jurors to return to address a possible indictment sooner. But there is no inevitable deadline for a Trump indictment. Bragg, for most intents and purposes, has time.
But Trump’s already gone on the offensive, bashing Bragg online and insisting the whole case is a hoax. In a Truth Social post last week, Trump said, “It was all made up by a convicted nut job with zero credibility, who has been disputed by highly respected professionals at every turn. Bragg refuses to stop despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”
“He is a Soros backed animal who just doesn’t care about right or wrong no matter how many people are hurt,” the former president added.
Trump in another post also showed a side-by-side of him holding a baseball bat next to Bragg’s head. The post was later deleted.
As the timeline for a possible indictment gets more unclear, Republicans are left with a longer window to weigh their options. Other Republicans seemed to hope their interference wouldn’t be needed after all.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a staunch conservative and member of the Judiciary Committee, told The Daily Beast Wednesday evening that he’s leaving decisions on what to do next on Bragg up to Jordan.
“But you know, [Bragg] seems like he’s kind of, you know, maybe, I don’t know, maybe backed off a little bit,” Roy said.
“But we’ll have to see,” the congressman added while stepping into a car outside the Capitol. “We’ll see what he does.”
