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(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
As of this writing, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has not yet indicted Donald Trump in connection with the 2016 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. But that hasn’t stopped the former president’s pals in Congress from riding to the rescue like a pack of howler monkeys.
On Monday, the chairs of the House Judiciary, Oversight, and Administration Committees sent the New York prosecutor a letter demanding that he account for himself.
“You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority,” they inveighed, demanding that Bragg “testify about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision.” Then they quoted a “legal scholar” accusing the New York DA of “attempting to ‘shoehorn[]’ the same case with identical facts into a new prosecution, resurrecting a so-called ‘zombie’ case against President Trump.” And if you’re guessing that this “scholar” is one Jonathan Turley, then you are correct, of course.
“The legal theory underlying your reported prosecution appears to be tenuous and untested,” write the politicians, despite having zero visibility on the inner workings of the grand jury. They end with a token effort to connect the prosecutorial decisions of a local elected official to Congress’s oversight role of the executive branch
“Congressional scrutiny about how public safety funds appropriated by Congress are implemented by local law-enforcement agencies” entitles them to subpoena every piece of paper in the DA’s office with the word “Trump” on it, they harrumph.
Because local control is a core GOP value, except when local officials do stuff Republicans don’t like.
DA Bragg pulled no punches in his response. A letter from the desk of his general counsel Leslie Dubeck chided the politicians for “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution,” and noted that the apparent impetus for their demands was Trump’s false prediction that he would be arrested Tuesday and urging by his lawyer Joseph Tacopina that congressional Republicans do … something.
The DA rebuked the committee chairs for intruding on “quintessential police powers belonging to the State” and attempting “an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty.” The letter cites decades of Supreme Court cases holding that the federal legislative branch really does not get to interfere in local prosecutorial decisions. See also: Tenth Amendment.
“While the DA’s Office will not allow a Congressional investigation to impede the exercise of New York’s sovereign police power, this Office will always treat a fellow government entity with due respect,” the letter concludes, offering to meet with the legislators to figure out exactly what legitimate legislative purpose they are advancing by harassing local law enforcement officials.
Over in the Senate, the response was marginally more measured. When asked by Axios about his Republican House colleagues’ demands of Bragg, Senator John Cornyn sighed that he would “personally prefer to see them work on the agenda they ran on and that got them the majority.”
“I think you’ve got to fall short of getting involved in the legal process,” said Senator Thom Tillis agreed.
But the usual suspects were up to their regularly scheduled murder of irony.
Meanwhile Trump himself is over on Truth Social calling Bragg, who is Black, an “animal” being controlled by Jewish philanthropist George Soros. He also reposted a graphic which depicts him appearing to swing a baseball bat at Bragg’s head.
“EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M 100% INNOCENT, INCLUDING BRAGG, BUT HE DOESN’T CARE. HE IS JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!” he screeched into the ether this morning.
Luckily Trump’s supporters would never take his calls for violence seriously … oh, wait.
Senate Republicans cool on House plans to question Manhattan DA [Axios]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.
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