Two former federal prosecutors told Newsmax Friday that proving Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg engaged in misconduct by indicting former President Donald Trump would be "tough" to prove.
After Bragg's office indicted Trump Thursday for crimes associated with a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep quiet about an alleged affair they had years earlier, many GOP officials slammed Bragg and his office demanding answers about why this case was being criminally prosecuted. Trump has repeatedly denied that he had an affair.
Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, James Comer, R-Ky., and Bryan Steil, R-Wis., sent a letter to Bragg March 30 asking for case-related documents and correspondence.
"Your decision to pursue such a politically motivated prosecution — while adopting progressive criminal justice policies that allow career "criminals [to] run the streets of Manhattan — requires congressional scrutiny about how public safety funds appropriated by Congress are implemented by local law-enforcement agencies," the letter said.
"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."
Despite the potential congressional inquiry, or using prosecutorial misconduct as a defense in the case itself, the legal experts said it would be hard to prove in court.
"There is a Quinnipiac poll that came out yesterday that said that two-thirds of people who have been polled believe this is purely a political case," Joseph Moreno, who served as a federal prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice in the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section, said during "The Record with Greta Van Susteren" Friday.
"Misconduct [by Bragg] could be tough [to prove] though because getting the discovery of those internal D.A. office conversations could be very difficult."
Moreno said that while people could decide that coming forward with this case is a "horrible" political decision, Bragg does have a large amount of discretion whether to pursue the case or not.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Jonathan Fahey, said the real question at issue if some form of misconduct was involved would be why, after declining to pursue the case a year earlier, Bragg decided to prosecute the former president.
"I think the overall point that is a political prosecution is really underscored by 'why did this come back,'" Fahey said. "Was there new evidence that came to be, or just a decision, and what was behind that decision."
Fahey said that if he were the judge hearing the case, he would want to know what other seven-year-old cases that are really misdemeanors, the prosecutors in the office are working on, and the current violent crimes in the city not getting "the attention they deserve."
"Why is this case being treated differently, or are there similar cases," he said.
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