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The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has fired back against a trio of House GOP committee leaders in wake of former President Donald Trump's indictment.
A new letter sent Friday cautions members to allow the office to fulfill its lawful duties and to not politicize ongoing criminal proceedings. A flurry of Republicans, from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to myriad others in the House and Senate as well as governors like Ron DeSantis, have expressed dissatisfaction with the indictment while pushing narratives that "George Soros-backed" Bragg is targeting Trump for Democrats' political gain.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Bragg since rumors of an indictment accelerated earlier this month, calling him "racist" and sharing a photo on his Truth Social page of him holding a baseball bat. The former president, who incorrectly predicted the date of his indictment, also pushed for mass protests and said his arrest could lead to "death and destruction"—the latter of which is mentioned in Bragg's new letter.
"As Committee Chairmen, you could use the stature of your office to denounce these attacks and urge respect for the fairness of our justice system and for the work of the impartial grand jury," the letter reads.
"Instead, you and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump's efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges and made unfounded allegations that the Office's investigation, conducted via an independent grand jury of average citizens serving New York State, is politically motivated."
The letter adds: "We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference."
The referenced committee chairmen are House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil.
On March 21, they sent a letter to Bragg "demanding communications, documents and testimony relating to Bragg's unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority and the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump."
Jordan has called Trump's indictment "outrageous" while Comer has questioned whether Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice are working in cohesion with those heading various investigations into Trump's alleged misdeeds, including a purported mishandling of classified documents and attempting to overturn Georgia's electoral results of the 2020 election in his favor.
Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman told Newsweek via phone that House Republican leaders' continued involvement in this legal matter "is bordering on obstruction of justice," as they have no legal oversight ability of this investigation and no right to ask for evidence or for people to testify.
He said there is a process in place that will include Trump's arraignment, which will provide the opportunity for discovery and various legal motions and ultimately a likely trial decided by a jury.
"What they're doing is totally unprecedented, and they haven't even read the indictment and know what the charges are...Any kind of interference for that can certainly be the basis for obstruction," said Akerman, adding that this is "so off the rails" and that no Republicans did anything similar during Richard Nixon's Watergate ordeal.
Lisa Parshall, a political science professor at Daemen University, told Newsweek via email that she expects the bluster and rhetoric attacking the prosecutions to continue "unabated."
"Again, this is about demonstrating loyalty to Trump for the party base and trying to maximize the short-term political advantage to fundraise and churn public support for Trump," Parshall said. "The playbook of deriding this as a partisan witch hunt and persecution of Trump will hold, I think, well past the point where there should be pause as to damage being done to institutions and basic concepts of the rule of law."
She is of the mindset that this was not the first legal avenue to pursue in regard to a Trump indictment, and that the falsification of business records is the easiest to wave away as political.
Parshall said that the sealed indictment may pose a "decent case" but "risks being dismissed as a nothingburger, or looking like a political circus" that helps the former president.
"Trump's presidency has been marked by moving the goalposts of institutional and presidential norms, which has had a desensitizing effect on public reaction to his transgressions," she said. "I could see some of the New York indictments as similarly blunting the impact of the extraordinary circumstances of a U.S. president indicted for criminal behavior and still maintaining a hold on his party—the party that traditionally touts itself as law and order."
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek investigative reporter based in Michigan. His focus includes U.S. and international politics and policies, immigration, ... Read more