Manhattan DA Acknowledges Some Federal Funds Were Used to Investigate Trump

District attorney candidate Alvin Bragg speaks during a Get Out the Vote rally at A. Philip Randolph Square in Harlem in New York City on Nov. 1, 2021. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

A March 31 letter from the office of Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg stated that some federal funding has gone into the investigation of former President Donald Trump or the Trump Organization by Bragg’s office.

It was sent to a trio of House Republicans including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Written by General Counsel Leslie Dubeck, the letter states that roughly $5,000 of federal money was used to investigate Trump and the Trump Organization from 2019 through 2021, before Bragg took office.

She said it came from the Department of Justice’s asset forfeiture fund.

“Most of those costs are attributed to the Supreme Court case, Trump v. Vance—subpoena-related litigation in which the DA’s Office prevailed and which led to the indictment and conviction of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and two Trump organizations,” the letter states.

Dubeck’s letter was sent the day after a New York grand jury voted to indict Trump. That indictment, which is currently under seal, concerns allegations about the payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels by Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Trump’s current lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said the former president will surrender himself to Bragg’s office before the arraignment hearing, when the charges will be read, on April 4.

Trump has maintained his innocence. In a March 31 post on Truth Social, he wrote that “radical left Democrats” were “indicting a totally innocent man.”

Latest in Exchange with House Republicans

Dubeck’s salvo is the latest in an exchange with Jordan, Comer, and House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.).

In a March 20 letter, after reports of Trump’s possible indictment began to circulate, the lawmakers asked Bragg to testify before Congress.

Dubeck rebuffed that request in a March 23 response, calling the Republicans’ letter “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.” She offered to “meet and confer” on the matter.

In a March 25 letter to Bragg, the three Republican committee chairmen reiterated their requests and their suggestion that the prosecution could be motivated by politics.

Dubeck called that assertion “baseless and inflammatory” in her March 31 response.

The Republicans have repeatedly raised the issue of federal funding for local law enforcement, in light of Bragg’s Trump investigation.

In their March 25 letter, they highlighted reports that Bragg has downgraded more than 50 percent of felony cases to misdemeanors.

“To the extent that you are receiving federal funds and are choosing to prioritize apparent political prosecutions over commonsense public safety measures, the Committee on the Judiciary certainly may consider legislation to tie federal funds to improved public safety metrics,” the March 25 letter reads.

Dubeck’s March 31 letter detailed three federal grant programs in which the DA’s office takes part, arguing that the grants have helped make New York one of the United States’ safest large cities.

She said none of that money went into investigating Trump or the Trump Organization.

That letter goes on to assert that a congressional subpoena of Bragg regarding the Trump prosecution would be “unprecedented and unconstitutional.”

The House Republicans’ March 25 letter argued that such a subpoena would be legitimate.