Just hours after a U.S. District Judge okayed a Congressional subpoena for a former prosecutor’s testimony, an appeals court has put a halt on it.
The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay on the House subpoena of former New York prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who 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 District Attorney Alvin Bragg initially declined to pursue charges against Trump.
Since then, Bragg renewed the case and on April 4 Trump was arrested and arraigned in Manhattan on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy related to the hush money case, to which the former President has pleaded “not guilty.”
On Wednesday, federal Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in the Southern District of New York, a Trump appointee, had ruled against a restraining order from Bragg to block Pomerantz’s testimony, finding that House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) had a valid legislative purpose in issuing the subpoena to Pomerantz.
But Bragg had appealed to the 2nd Circuit, which has sided with him, at least temporarily.
Judge Beth Robinson noted that her order “reflects no judgment regarding the merits” of the case. A three-judge panel will ultimately weigh whether to uphold or overturn the lower-court’s decision. Robinson, a Biden appointee, has ordered Bragg’s office to file court papers detailing its appeal by Friday and for the Judiciary Committee to submit its response by Saturday.
Requesting Pomerantz’s testimony is part of Jordan’s investigation into what he calls the “weaponization” of the U.S. justice system.
He had hoped to question Pomerantz in committee on Thursday.
