House Judiciary Committee Weighs Subpoenas for DA Bragg and His Team
The House Judiciary Committee is seriously considering issuing subpoenas for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and two prosecutors who resigned from his team last year, to provide testimony before Congress in light of the unprecedented indictment of former President Trump. A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital about the deliberations.
Former President Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in criminal court in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, in relation to alleged hush-money payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 04: Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his defense team in a Manhattan court during his arraignment on April 4, 2023, in New York City. Trump was arraigned during his first court appearance today following an indictment by a grand jury that heard evidence about money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. With the indictment, Trump becomes the first former U.S. president in history to be charged with a criminal offense. (Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)
Days before the unprecedented indictment and arrest of a former President of the United States, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer began demanding answers from Bragg and his office – suggesting he testify before Congress.
The House Judiciary Committee is likely to issue subpoenas for Bragg, Mark Pomerantz, and Carey Dunne, the two ex-prosecutors, to testify before the panel, added the source.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, left, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, right. (Associated Press)
When Bragg became district attorney in January 2022, he stopped pursuing charges against Trump and suspended the investigation “indefinitely”. Pomerantz and Dunne, who were leading the investigation under Bragg’s predecessor – former Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance – resigned in February 2022 after Bragg began expressing doubts about pursuing a case against Trump.
Pomerantz went on to write a tell-all book based on the investigation, even though it was still ongoing, arguing for charging Trump.
Before joining the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Pomerantz was of counsel at New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He took leave from the firm last year to join Vance’s office to investigate Trump’s financial dealings. Dunne, before leading the Trump investigation, served as general counsel for the district attorney’s office and successfully argued before the Supreme Court for Trump’s tax records.
Following Trump’s indictment, the House Judiciary Committee, on a more urgent basis, has been seeking answers from Bragg and his team. Bragg alleges that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a press conference to discuss the charges against Steve Bannon in New York on September 8, 2022. ((Photo by ALEX KENT/AFP via Getty Images))
The next hearing in the case is scheduled to be held on December 4, 2023. The prosecution is seeking a trial in January 2024, in the middle of the GOP presidential primary season. Trump’s defense team aims to delay the trial as long as possible. Trump has called the DA’s investigation and the charges against him, “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.”
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower, Monday, April 3, 2023, in New York. Trump arrived in New York on Monday for his expected booking and arraignment the following day on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at [email protected] or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
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