Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) alleged that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump is tantamount to “election interference” in the 2024 race as polls show Trump is a leading candidate among Republicans.
“We hear a lot from the left about election interference and protecting democracy. On some level, doesn’t this kind of fall into that folder?” Fox Business host Jimmy Failla asked Jordan in an interview.
Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, responded in the affirmative. “Totally. Alvin Bragg used federal tax dollars to go after a former president, to indict a former president for no crime, interferes with the federal election,” Jordan said.
“And then we want to talk with someone who hasn’t worked there in a year. And what’s he do? He sues us,” he added, referring to Bragg’s lawsuit against House Judiciary Republicans.
The Epoch Times has contacted Bragg’s office for comment. Bragg’s office previously asserted that it is Jordan and House Republicans that are interfering in the DA’s probe and case against the former president, seeking relief via an emergency restraining order that was rejected by a district judge earlier this week until at least a hearing can be held.
More than a week ago, Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, and he pleaded not guilty to all counts during an unprecedented event in a Manhattan courthouse. The charges stem from a payment that his campaign made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels via former lawyer Michael Cohen during the 2016 presidential election.
Bragg and the indictment have meanwhile asserted that Trump falsified those records to cover up another crime. However, neither Bragg nor the indictment explained what that second charge is, drawing concern among some legal experts about the validity of his probe.
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Earlier this month, Jordan and Judiciary Committee Republicans issued a subpoena to former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who led an investigation into Trump before resigning. Pomerantz stated in his resignation letter that he was concerned that Bragg was reluctant to charge Trump in the case, citing that reason for stepping down in March.
In response, Bragg’s office filed a lawsuit to quash that subpoena, while accusing Jordan and House Republicans of attempting to interfere with his investigation.
“The House GOP continues to attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing New York criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation,” Bragg said in a statement posted to Twitter last week. “Repeated efforts to weaken state and local law enforcement actions are an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law.”
Bragg then claimed that Republican “elected officials would better serve their constituents and the country, and fulfill their oath of office, by doing their jobs in Congress and not introducing on the sovereignty of the state of New York by interfering in an ongoing criminal matter in state court.” Since the indictment was announced, the Manhattan Democrat has not addressed claims that by going after Trump, it could create the impression that his office is acting in a biased manner.
And in his court filings, Bragg’s team argued that Jordan “has no power under the Constitution to oversee state and local criminal matters.“ The Committee’s subpoena of Pomerantz ”marks the first time in our nation’s history that Congress has used its compulsory process to interfere with an ongoing state criminal case,” he wrote.
“The District Attorney is likely to succeed on the merits because the subpoena exceeds Congress’s authority and obstructs New York’s sovereign right to enforce its criminal law,” prosecutors said in a filing.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, issued an order on April 12 that rejected Bragg’s emergency request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Jordan. A hearing must be held first.
“The Court declines to enter the proposed Temporary Restraining Order and Order to Show Cause,” Vyskocil said. The judge wrote that she hadn’t received several documents that were referenced in Bragg’s filings, ordering Bragg and Jordan to respond to her motion by April 19.
