Three Republican chairmen who requested an interview with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg as well as numerous documents relating to the case against Donald Trump’s hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels are being stonewalled by Bragg’s office. Leslie Dubeck, Bragg’s general counsel, claimed the requests were “unlawful” and said the House investigation was “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”
Anyone with half a brain knows there’s nothing “local” about this case. This is a case with national and international implications, and if DA Bragg and his office are conducting a political witch hunt, the American people have a right to know.
Waiting until the trial is over and Trump is convicted to ask for a review would be too late. Besides, what kind of fair and impartial review can Trump — or any Republican — get in deep blue New York?
“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 a congressional inquiry,” she wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Politico.
Who says it was a “false expectation?” It could be equally true that Bragg had every intention of arresting Trump on Tuesday, but once Trump let the cat out of the bag, the DA’s carefully choreographed scenario fell apart.
The senior Republicans’ request for information — supplemented Wednesday by two additional letters from Jordan — raises unusual questions about the scope of Congress’ jurisdiction over state and local criminal matters. Democrats sharply rejected the notion that Congress plays any role in overseeing non-federal investigations.
Dubeck’s reply came just ahead of a 10 a.m. deadline that Republicans set for Bragg to set up an closed-door transcribed interview with their aides, as well as to hand over a broad swath of documents including any related to potential federal funding of or involvement in his work.
Trump is not above the law. But the prosecutor should not be allowed to prosecute Trump in a vacuum. The political implications are unavoidable regardless of what the DA’s office says about the case not being about politics. And ignoring that by claiming to be above suspicion of partisanship doesn’t pass the smell test.
Broadly speaking, her letter emphasized that even though Bragg’s office sharply rejects the notion that its Trump probe is political, the forum for probing those allegations would be court proceedings in New York, not Congress.
Comer, Jordan and Steil didn’t immediately respond on Thursday. But House Judiciary Republicans’ Twitter account tweeted shortly after the letter that “Alvin Bragg should focus on prosecuting actual criminals in New York City rather than harassing a political opponent in another state.“
Trump may or may not have been creating a “false impression” of imminent arrest intentionally. So, too, might Bragg has been playing games. The facts are that never before in American history has a candidate for president been threatened by members of the opposition party with arrest and imprisonment.
And if Bragg is too obtuse to see how his actions are being viewed by Republicans, perhaps he should find another line of work.
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