Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg shot down House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s request to testify in Washington, D.C. over an investigation into Donald Trump, calling the request “unprecedented” and accusing the Ohio Republican of “interfering” with New York state judicial sovereignty on behalf of the former president.
Jordan this week sent letters asking two of Bragg’s former prosecutors to testify before the committee as a grand jury edges closer to indicting Trump regarding hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Republicans have also asked Bragg to testify.
In his response to Jordan on Thursday, Bragg argued that his investigation into Trump was legitimate and called Jordan’s demands an “unconstitutional request.”
“Your letter dated March 20, 2023 (the ‘Letter’), in contrast, is an [unprecedented] inquiry into a pending local prosecution. ‘The Letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day, and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”
He added that complying would “interfere with law enforcement” and that Jordan’s letter is an “unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty.”
The response from Braggs also made it clear that Congress is “not the appropriate branch” to review pending criminal cases, and that Federal funding is “an insufficient basis to justify these unconstitutional requests.”
Read the full letter below.
– Federal funding is “an insufficient basis to justify these unconstitutional requests”
Last page includes a request to “meet and confer to understand whether the Committee has any legitimate legislative purpose in the requested materials that could be accomodated.” pic.twitter.com/JrfefCUhSM
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) March 23, 2023
