Judge rejects Trump’s request for Bragg’s former prosecutor’s subpoena

A judge on Friday shut down Donald Trump‘s attempt to subpoena Mark Pomerantz, a former special prosecutor in New York who went public with behind-the-scenes details about his attempts to bring charges against the former president.

Judge Juan Merchan criticized the subpoena, which sought Pomerantz’s communications with people who are now witnesses in Trump’s hush money trial, as well as other documents.

The subpoena requests “are far too broad and amount to an improper fishing expedition into general discovery,” Merchan wrote in a court order.

“There is no reasonable likelihood that the [subpoenaed documents] would uncover any information that is relevant and material to the proceedings,” Merchan wrote, pointing to a high volume of related documents Trump’s team had already received as part of the discovery process.

Trump’s attorneys issued the subpoena in March, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg quickly moved to block it.

The attorneys sought Pomerantz’s communications with numerous people, including Michael Cohen, a known witness in the case. They specified that they wanted Pomerantz’s communications that showed “any form of bias or animosity toward President Trump,” “requests for benefits or other consideration,” and any conversations about evidence in the case that Pomerantz had with Bragg’s office after he resigned from it.

Pomerantz joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in 2021 on a pro bono basis to investigate Trump. When Bragg, an elected Democrat, took over the office in January 2022, he was reluctant to pursue charges against Trump and halted the investigation, prompting Pomerantz to resign in protest.

Pomerantz’s resignation letter surfaced in the New York Times, and it revealed that the ex-prosecutor was angry with Bragg and that Pomerantz had been eager to charge Trump. Pomerantz said the former president was “guilty of numerous felony violations.”

He also said Bragg had taken issue with the merits of the case.

“I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and on the existing record, is misguided and completely contrary to the public interest,” Pomerantz wrote to Bragg.

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Pomerantz has since become publicly critical of Trump. He published a book called People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, in which he characterized Trump as a malicious mob boss and conveyed how important it was to Pomerantz that Trump be indicted.

Congressional Republicans have argued that the amount of publicity Pomerantz put on the hush money case is what pressured Bragg to change his mind after several months and bring charges against Trump.