Prosecutor in Trump Hush-Money Case Fires Back at House Republicans
"The grand jury examining the former president’s role in a hush-money payment typically does not hear testimony about the inquiry on Thursdays, making an indictment unlikely before next week.
The Manhattan district attorney on Thursday responded to House Republicans who have scrutinized his office’s criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump, pushing back forcefully against what the office called an inappropriate attempt by Congress to impede a local prosecution.
The office of the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, was responding to a Monday letter demanding that he provide communications, documents and testimony about his investigation — an extraordinary request by three Republican committee chairmen to involve themselves in an inquiry that is expected to result in criminal charges against the former president.
The response from the district attorney’s office, signed by its general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, called the Republicans’ request “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”
Mr. Bragg’s office is investigating the role Mr. Trump played in a hush-money payment to a porn star and there have been several signals that the prosecutors are nearing an indictment. Still, the exact timing remains unknown.
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Though the special grand jury hearing evidence about Mr. Trump meets on Thursdays, it typically does not hear evidence about the Trump case that day, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Special grand juries, which unlike regular grand juries sit for months at a time and hear complex cases, routinely consider multiple cases simultaneously.
Republicans have rushed to the former president’s side this week, following a Saturday post from Mr. Trump inaccurately predicting that he would be arrested Tuesday and calling on his supporters to protest in charged language reminiscent of his social media posts in the weeks before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Saturday, following Mr. Trump’s post, the speaker of the House, Representative Kevin McCarthy, called for investigations into whether federal funds were being used for “politically motivated prosecutions,” an act clearly intended as a threat to Mr. Bragg.
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The letter from House Republicans, Ms. Dubeck wrote, “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.” She added, “Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”
Her letter requested a meeting with the Republican committee members to understand whether their committees had “any legitimate legislative purpose in the requested materials that could be accommodated.”
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The letter came as Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, was taking steps toward issuing subpoenas. Mr. Jordan’s top lawyer reached out to Mr. Bragg’s office Wednesday to ask who could receive a subpoena. The lawyer also claimed Mr. Bragg’s office had twice hung up the phone on an aide of Mr. Jordan’s who had called previously, according to a person familiar with the matter.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment, other than to say that the office was assessing the credibility of the claim.
Mr. Jordan also sent letters Wednesday to the two former leaders of the investigation, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, demanding documents and testimony relating to Mr. Bragg’s case. Mr. Dunne and Mr. Pomerantz both resigned from their positions in the district attorney’s office in February 2022 after Mr. Bragg decided not to seek an indictment of Mr. Trump related to his business practices.
Mr. Dunne, Ms. Dubeck’s predecessor as general counsel, declined to comment, as did Mr. Pomerantz.
The nature of Mr. Dunne’s position could mean that almost all of his communications with other office staff members were protected by attorney-client privilege, which would prevent Mr. Bragg from turning them over to Congress.
Mr. Trump, for his own part, used racist language to describe the district attorney on Thursday, referring to Mr. Bragg, who is Black, as an “animal” in a post on his social media platform.
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The district attorney’s prosecutors have been presenting evidence to a grand jury since January, and there have been a number of signals that they will likely indict Mr. Trump soon. First, they told Mr. Trump’s lawyers that he could testify before the grand jury in his own defense last week, a right granted to people who are nearing indictment. (He declined.) They have also questioned nearly every witness involved in the hush-money payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, in front of the grand jury.
None of the witnesses relevant to the hush-money matter have been seen going into the building where the jury sits on Thursdays. And what may appear to outside observers to be wild swings in the momentum of the investigation are likely the routine stop and start of the New York grand jury process.
William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
Luke Broadwater covers Congress. He was the lead reporter on a series of investigative articles at The Baltimore Sun that won a Pulitzer Prize and a George Polk Award in 2020. @lukebroadwater
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney's office, state criminal courts in Manhattan and New York City's jails. @jonesieman
Ben Protess is an investigative reporter covering the federal government, law enforcement and various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies. @benprotess"
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