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Within hours of Donald Trump predicting his arrest, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy didn’t just voice his support for the former president, the California Republican also directed House committee chairs to investigate the work of the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Evidently, they got the message. NBC News reported this morning:
Three House Republican committee chairmen sent Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a letter Monday requesting he testify before Congress “about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision” in any potential indictment of former President Donald Trump in the prosecutor’s hush money probe.
The joint letter — which is a request, not a subpoena — was signed by three powerful GOP chairs: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin.
“In light of the serious consequences of your actions, we expect that you will testify about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision,” the letter read.
On Twitter, Jordan added that Bragg “owes” the Republicans answers.
On the surface, these developments might seem predictable at first blush. Bragg is a Democratic prosecutor investigating a Republican former president, so perhaps it stands to reason that Trump’s far-right allies on Capitol Hill would start pressing the local prosecutors for answers.
But nothing about this is normal. We’re dealing with a situation in which a local elected prosecutor has convened a grand jury, which is currently hearing evidence. In fact, it’s scheduled to hear from an important witness today.
It’s against this backdrop that three powerful House committee chairman have formally requested that the prosecutor respond to their conspiracy theories — about, among other things, a possible Justice Department role in the local case.
Note, as of this afternoon, Bragg hasn’t even brought charges against Trump or anyone else involved in the hush money scandal. Jordan, Comer, and Steil are demanding answers anyway.
I’m mindful of the fact that in contemporary Republican politics, investigating the investigators has become a standard go-to move, but this sort of thing just doesn’t happen. Committee chairs from both parties have long understood that seeking testimony from a prosecutor about an ongoing case is plainly ridiculous.
And yet, here we are.
Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, published a tweet along these lines this morning, which hopefully got his colleagues’ attention. “Dear [Jordan]: Local prosecutors, including DA Bragg, owe you nothing,” the Californian wrote. “In fact, it is illegal for you and [Judiciary Committee Republicans] to interfere in an ongoing criminal investigation, or a criminal trial (if there is one).”
It's also an open question as to how Congress is claiming to have any jurisdiction over a local prosecutorial matter.
With this in mind, it’s a safe bet that Bragg will not volunteer to answer the GOP chairs’ questions about an ongoing criminal investigation, which raises the prospect of a possible subpoena in the near future. Watch this space.