Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office Friday asked three House Republican leaders to pull back on their demand for information about the case against former President Donald Trump and scolded them for deciding to "collaborate" with him, as he has been indicted.
In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, Leslie Dubeck, the general counsel for Bragg's office, said Trump has directed "harsh invective" against Bragg on social media, and that the congressmen should have used their positions to denounce such attacks.
"As you are no doubt aware, former President Trump has directed harsh invective against District Attorney Bragg and threatened on social media that his arrest or indictment in New York may unleash 'death & destruction,'" Dubeck wrote. "Many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump's efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges and made unfounded allegations that the Office's investigation … is politically motivated."
Dubeck added that her office is urging the chairmen to "refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference."
The three chairmen wrote a letter on March 25 to Bragg's office seeking documents about the investigation, saying Congress might be considering legislation that would shield former presidents from state criminal investigations over "personal acts."
Dubeck, though, accused them of having come up with a "baseless pretext to interfere" with the Manhattan office's work and said they had not cited the same rationale in an original request for materials on March 20, when they requested the items shortly after Trump said he would be arrested.
Bragg's office responded to the first letter that the request "treads into territory very closely related to the states" and that it came after Trump's lawyers "reportedly urged you to interfere" after Trump "created a false expectation that he would be arrested."
Dubeck's letter on Friday reiterated that congressional committees do not have the jurisdiction to conduct oversight on a state criminal prosecution and attacked the notion that the Manhattan office had failed to dispute that its investigation of the former president was politically motivated since the materials that had been demanded were not turned over.
"That conclusion is misleading and meritless," Dubeck wrote. "We did not engage in a point-by-point rebuttal of your letter because our office is legally constrained in how it publicly discusses pending criminal proceedings, as prosecutorial offices are across the country and as you well know.
"Even if you were seriously considering such legislation and had the constitutional authority to enact it (which you do not), your request for information from the District Attorney and his former attorneys concerning an ongoing criminal probe is unnecessary and unjustified. Congress has many sources from which it could seek information on the wisdom of this legislation, including from former federal or state prosecutors not involved in this pending matter."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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