By Michael R. Sisak and Farnoush Amiri
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a federal lawsuit against Rep. Jim Jordan on Tuesday, accusing the Republican of a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has or plans to issue as part of an investigation of Bragg's handling of the case, the first criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president.
The House Judiciary Committee recently issued a subpoena seeking testimony from a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, who previously oversaw the Trump investigation and sparred with Bragg over the direction of the probe before leaving the office last year. The committee has also sought documents and testimony from Bragg and his office. Bragg has rejected those requests.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing in Manhattan on Monday on crime in New York City and what it alleges are Bragg’s “pro-crime, anti-victim” policies. The D.A.’s office, however, points to statistics showing that violent crime in Manhattan has dropped since Bragg took office in January 2022.
In response, Bragg said that if Jordan, who is from Ohio, “really cared about public safety,” he would travel to some of the major cities in his home state, where crime is reportedly higher than in New York.
Bragg, in his lawsuit, said he’s taking legal action “in response to an unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress on an ongoing New York State criminal prosecution and investigation of former President Donald J. Trump.”
A request for comment from Jordan was not immediately returned.
Trump was indicted March 30 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty at an arraignment last week in Manhattan.
Republicans have been railing against Bragg even before Trump’s indictment.
Jordan has issued a series of letters and subpoenas to individuals involved with the case. Pomerantz refused to voluntarily cooperate with the committee’s request last month at the instruction of Bragg’s office, citing the ongoing investigation.
Jordan sees Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who were top deputies tasked with running the investigation on a day-to-day basis, as catalysts for Bragg’s decision to move ahead with the hush money case.
