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.
Cheddar Politics takes a deeper look at the takeaways from the Georgia primary elections on Tuesday. Georgia Public Broadcasting's local and state politics reporter, Stephen Fowler, joins us to discuss the limits of Trump endorsements and break down what the outcome in each race means.
After learning that the suspect in the Uvalde school shooting posted about his intentions on Facebook, activists are urging social networks to make changes. Lena Derhally, a licensed psychotherapist and author of "The Facebook Narcissist," joined Cheddar News to discuss the role social media plays in school shootings. "They're not really invested in taking down hateful content," she said about social platforms."In regards to the shooting, it was 15 minutes before that actual threat. It would be pretty hard for a social media company to trace that threat that quickly. But what they can do better is take down threats and hateful content much faster and more than they're doing now."
Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
The average city in California has a 38% higher cost of living than the average American city, according to a cost of living index. For many, the general minimum wage of $15/hour just doesn't cut it. Anti-poverty activist Joe Sanberg wants to get the minimum wage changed to $18/hour. He joins Cheddar News to discuss the Living Wage Act of 2022.
