HO CHI MINH CITY –
The Manhattan District Attorney investigating Donald Trump denied a request by Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Thursday for documents and testimony about the case, calling it an “unprecedented investigation.” has no legal basis.
In a letter obtained by the Associated Press, Manhattan District Attorney’s chief attorney Alvin Bragg criticized the congressional request as “an unlawful invasion of New York’s sovereignty.”
“The letter came only after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers are said to have urged you to intervene,” Leslie Dubeck wrote in letters. “There is no factual basis for a congressional investigation.”
The chairmen of three Republican House committees on Monday sent a letter to Bragg seeking information about his actions in the Trump case. Republicans criticized the grand jury investigation as an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial power.”
The presidents requested that testimony as well as documents and copies of any communications with the Justice Department be turned over by Thursday. The request came as House Republicans quickly rallied around the former president as a grand jury in New York deliberated whether to bring an indictment against him.
“If a grand jury brings charges against Donald Trump, the DA’s Office will be obligated, as in all cases, to provide a substantial amount of discovery from its record to the defendant so that he can prepare to defend,” Dubeck wrote.
The five-page reply from Bragg’s office provides a rare insight into what remains a secret grand jury process, marking one of the first public admissions that there is a grand jury is currently investigating Trump. The DA’s office has closely followed centuries-old rules that have kept grand juries private to protect the reputations of those who are ultimately not charged and to encourage reluctant witnesses to testify.
In closed-door proceedings to the public and members of the media, grand jurors listen to evidence presented by prosecutors and hear witnesses present. No judge was present, nor did anyone represent the defendant, and prosecutors did not have to present any evidence in favor of the defense.
The revelation comes as the grand jury appears to be nearing its completion, following a hearing last week from Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, but the timing of a decision could be made. Whether to charge the former president remains uncertain. According to a person familiar with the matter, prosecutors canceled a grand jury session scheduled for Wednesday and scheduled to hear testimony on other matters on Thursday. But law enforcement in New York has been preparing for any unrest, should Trump face charges.
The case revolves around hush payments made during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to women who allegedly had sex with him. Bragg’s team appears to be looking into whether Trump or anyone else committed a crime in New York state in arranging the payments or in the way they do internal accounting at the Trump Organization.
On Thursday, one of the GOP presidents, Representative Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, expanded his investigation into the handling of the Trump case by requesting testimony and documents from Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, two former Manhattan prosecutors who once led Trump. case before giving up last year in a conflict over the direction of the investigation.
“Last year, you resigned from office because of Bragg’s initial reluctance to proceed with the charges, embarrassing Bragg in your resignation letter – which was subsequently leaked – about bringing forward allegations,” Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote in a letter to Pomerantz. late Wednesday. “Now it looks like your efforts to embarrass Bragg have worked as he is said to be reviving the so-called ‘zombie’ lawsuit against President Trump using a theory flimsy and untested legality.”
Requests for comment from Pomerantz and Dunne were not returned.
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Writer Michael R. Sisak of the Associated Press in New York contributed to this report.
