The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government announced on May 31 that it will demand Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his senior counsel, Matthew Colangelo, testify on June 13 following the historic conviction of former President Donald Trump.
The hearing, according to the letters, “will examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage politically-motivated prosecutions of federal officials, in particular the recent political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to Doug Cohen, the press secretary for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, to ask if Mr. Bragg and Mr. Colangelo will appear before the subcommittee.
On May 30, a jury found President Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment made to Stephanie Clifford, better known as adult performer Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention. He faces a maximum penalty of four years in prison for each charge.
During a press conference following the verdict, Mr. Bragg said that “the jury has spoken.”
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors,” he said.
This is not the first time Congress has asked Mr. Bragg to testify before Congress.
Mr. Jordan has sent letters to Mr. Bragg demanding testimony and documents, claiming his office is subject to congressional scrutiny because it gets federal grants. Mr. Jordan also subpoenaed a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, who previously oversaw the Trump investigation. Mr. Bragg then sued Mr. Jordan, calling the probe into Mr. Bragg’s prosecution of President Trump a “transparent campaign to intimidate” him.
Mr. Pomerantz said in court papers that the subpoena leaves him in an “impossible position” and, if enforced, will require him to violate his ethical obligations or risk being held in contempt of Congress if he refuses. A federal judge scheduled an initial hearing for Wednesday.
However, a federal judge ruled last year that Mr. Jordan can subpoena Mr. Pomerantz.
“It is not the role of the federal judiciary to dictate what legislation Congress may consider or how it should conduct its deliberations in that connection,” wrote District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in her ruling. “Mr. Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition.”
“No one is above the law.”
Mr. Jordan’s probe into Mr. Bragg’s prosecution of President Trump began two days after the former president announced, on March 18, 2023, that he would be arrested. Mr. Jordan asked Mr. Bragg to provide documents about his ‘politically motivated prosecution’ of the former president.
Mr. Pomerantz pushed for an indictment against President Trump in 2021 after leading a probe into the former president’s finances. He left the Manhattan district attorney’s office in February 2022 because Mr. Bragg initially decided not to pursue a criminal case against President Trump. Mr. Pomerantz later released a memoir about the case.
