Washington – The office of Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg has charged three House GOP chairmen with attempting to interfere with his impeachment of former President Donald Trump, and has rejected calls from lawmakers to provide testimony and documents about an ongoing criminal investigation.
in letter Sent to Representatives James Comer, Jim Jordan and Brian Steele on Friday, District Attorney Leslie Dubik defended the grand jury’s vote in favor of accusing the former presidentHe said that the committees’ request for information would interfere with the prosecutors’ criminal case. Kummer is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Jordan chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Steele chairs the House Management Committee.
“The charges filed yesterday were brought by citizens of New York, in the performance of their civic duties as members of a grand jury, who found probable cause to indict Mr. Trump with crimes in New York,” Dubic wrote. “The two committees’ attempt to interfere with an ongoing government criminal investigation—and now prosecution—is an unprecedented and wrongful incursion into New York’s sovereign interests.”
Dubick’s response comes a day after the attorney general confirmed that a New York grand jury had voted to indict the former president, a first in American history. While the indictment remains classified, the grand jury has been investigating the circumstances surrounding the Payment on behalf of Trump of adult film star Stormy Daniels in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors are believed to be investigating possible falsification of employment records intended to cover up payments.
Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images
The speech is the latest in a back-and-forth between the GOP chairman and the Prague office, which began with the lawmakers. Requests to obtain documents and testimony from Prague on March 20, two days after Trump first announced that he expected to be arrested. The chiefs charged Bragg with a willingness to “engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial power” and required him to provide records of any contacts with the Justice Department and appear before Congress.
Dubic answered to that request three days later, saying compliance would disclose “non-public information about a pending criminal investigation, which is classified under state law.” It said that the involvement of Congress in a state criminal case would be “an illegal intrusion on the sovereignty of New York.”
bosses wrote again on March 25, arguing that Congress has “a compelling interest in protecting the physical integrity of former or sitting presidents.” They reiterated their request for information, and said that “any decision to prosecute a former or current president raises difficult questions of how to establish that interest in the context of a local or state criminal justice system.”
In a response Friday, Dubick accused the presidents, all staunch Trump allies, of trying to interfere with the investigation in favor of the former president.
“[I]Dubic wrote: “You seem to be acting more like a criminal defense attorney trying to gather evidence for a client than a legislator pursuing a legitimate legislative goal.”
Dubik also urged the chiefs to “refrain from these inflammatory accusations” that the case was politically motivated and to “allow the criminal justice process to move forward without illegal political interference.”
“[A]No doubt you are aware, former President Trump lashed out at the Prague Attorney General and threatened on social media to arrest or charge him in
New York may unleash death and destruction,” Dubik wrote, referring to Trump’s letter Posted on his social platform last week.
She continued, “As chair of the committee, you can use the prestige of your office to denounce these attacks and urge respect for the fairness of our judicial system and the work of an impartial grand jury.” “Instead, you and many of your colleagues have chosen to cooperate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to discredit and discredit elected attorneys general and trial judges, and have made unsubstantiated allegations that the office’s investigation, conducted by means of an independent grand jury of private citizens serving and motivated New York State political.”
Trump denied any wrongdoing in the case, and denounced the indictment as “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.” He accused the Democrats of “weaponizing our judicial system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be the President of the United States.”
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