Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg responded Thursday to three House committee chairmen’s issuing a subpoena demanding testimony from former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz.
Pomerantz had previously led the investigation into former President Trump’s role in hush money payments made amid the 2016 Presidential election. Pomerantz stepped down last year after Bragg initially declined to pursue charges against Trump.
This Tuesday, Trump was arrested and arraigned on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy, to which the former President has pleaded “not guilty.”
On Twitter, Bragg responded to Thursday’s subpoena of Pomerantz, saying, “The House GOP continues to attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing New York criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation. Repeated efforts to weaken state and local law enforcement actions are an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law.”
Pomerantz had previously turned down a request to voluntarily cooperate with the investigation brought by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY) and Brian Steil (R-WI), sparking the subpoena.
Pomerantz published a book in February that criticizes Bragg for not previously pursuing charges in the hush money case. Pomerantz further suggests in the book that Bragg should urge former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen to cooperate again with the District Attorney’s office—which Cohen did, meeting several times with Manhattan prosecutors before testifying twice before the Manhattan grand jury in March.
Cohen had pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal crimes and served prison time for his role in the payoff of $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking ahead of the 2016 Presidential Election about an affair she had with Trump. The payment was a campaign contribution violation during the 2016 election cycle, since it was made in service of the Trump campaign, and $130,000 exceeded the federal limit.
In their subpoena of Pomerantz the three lawmakers wrote, “The New York County District Attorney’s unprecedented prosecutorial conduct requires oversight to inform the consideration of potential legislative reforms that would, if enacted, insulate current and former Presidents from such politically motivated state and local prosecutions.”
Bragg has denied pursuing the case for political ends and said in his tweeted statement, “These elected officials would better serve their constituents and their country, and fulfill their oath of office, by doing their jobs in Congress and not intruding on the sovereignty of the state of New York by interfering in an ongoing criminal matter in state court.”
