District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a press convention on Sept. 8, 2022.
Alex Kent/AFP by way of Getty Images
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Alex Kent/AFP by way of Getty Images
District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a press convention on Sept. 8, 2022.
Alex Kent/AFP by way of Getty Images
The New York District Attorney’s workplace investigating former President Donald Trump known as Republican requests for its paperwork and testimony “an unprecedent inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”
In a letter to a few Republican House committee chairs, a lawyer within the workplace of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr., mentioned the congressional request advised their inquiry is designed to “punish” the workplace for its investigation, and “is therefore indefensible.”
“The DA’s Office will not allow a Congressional investigation to impede the exercise of New York’s sovereign police power,” General Counsel for the District Attorney of New York County Leslie Dubeck wrote Thursday.
Earlier this week, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., despatched Bragg a letter demanding documents, communications and testimony associated to his investigation of the previous president.
Bragg’s workplace is investigating Trump over a $130,000 payment to grownup movie actor Stormy Daniels, made simply earlier than the 2016 election with a view to quiet her allegations of an affair between the 2. A New York grand jury is investigating whether or not Trump falsified his information of the hush cash fee with a view to cowl up a violation of marketing campaign finance legal guidelines.
Over the weekend, the previous president took to social media to say he could be arrested on Tuesday, and urged his supporters to protest. The get together has rallied round Trump within the days since, decrying the inquiry as political retaliation. But there was no official announcement of a felony indictment.
In their letter, the three committee chairs known as a doable indictment “an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority” and mentioned it was primarily based on “a novel legal theory untested anywhere in the country and one that federal authorities declined to pursue.”
They argued that if Bragg does indict Trump, Bragg’s actions “will erode confidence in the evenhanded application of justice and unalterably interfere in the course of the 2024 presidential election.”
In her response Thursday, Dubeck famous that the congressional request “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”
“The Letter’s requests are an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty,” she mentioned.
NPR’s Ilya Marritz contributed to this report.
