(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, James Comer, R-Ky., and Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., have sent a letter to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, demanding a slew of records related to his potential indictment of former President Donald Trump.
The letter comes a day before Trump is expected to be arrested over an alleged bribery scheme and hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Jordan, Comer and Steil—who chair the Judiciary, Oversight and House Administration committees, respectively—demanded to know why the Soros-funded DA is pursuing charges after the DOJ already dropped the matter.
“The New York County District Attorney’s Office has been investigating President Trump since at least 2018, looking for some legal theory on which to bring charges. The facts surrounding the impending indictment have ‘been known for years.’ Michael Cohen, President Trump’s disgraced former lawyer, pleaded guilty over four years ago to charges based on the same facts at issue in the impending indictment,” the representatives said.
“By July 2019, however, federal prosecutors determined that no additional people would be charged alongside Cohen. Now, in the words of one legal scholar, you are attempting to ‘shoehorn’ the same case with identical facts into a new prosecution, resurrecting a so-called ‘zombie’ case against President Trump.”
Jordan, Comer and Steil seek numerous records from Bragg, including all documents and communications between or among the New York County District Attorney’s Office and the DOJ or other federal law enforcement agencies to its Trump investigation. They also want all documents and communications referring or relating to the New York County District Attorney Office’s receipt and use of federal funds.
The congressman said they have an interest in a local prosecution of Trump for several reasons. They said Bragg’s “politically motivated prosecution … “requires congressional scrutiny about how public safety funds appropriated by Congress are implemented by local law-enforcement agencies.”
“In addition, your apparent decision to pursue criminal charges where federal authorities declined to do so requires oversight to inform potential legislative reforms about the delineation of prosecutorial authority between federal and local officials,” they said.
“Finally, because the circumstances of this matter stem, in part, from Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, Congress may consider legislative reforms to the authorities of special counsels and their relationships with other prosecuting entities.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
