House Republicans have issued a subpoena demanding the testimony of a former Manhattan prosecutor who previously led the investigation into former President Donald Trump that led to his indictment on March 30.
Mark Pomerantz, who was a special assistant district attorney in Manhattan for about a year in 2021 and early 2022, turned down a request to voluntarily cooperate with a congressional investigation into the office that charged Trump, according to a letter sent Thursday by three House GOP committee chairmen.
“We received a reply letter dated March 27, 2023, stating that, at the instruction of the New York County District Attorney’s Office, you would not cooperate with our oversight,” wrote Reps. Jim Jordan, James Comer and Bryan Steil Thursday, using the formal designation for Manhattan. Jordan is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Comer leads the Oversight Committee and Steil chairs the Committee on House Administration.
The GOP leaders harshly criticized the investigation into Trump, who was arraigned Tuesday on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records on Tuesday. The charges stem from an alleged scheme to suppress stories and allegations, beginning in 2015, that Trump believed might harm his campaign, according to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump entered a not guilty plea on all charges and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Trump, the leading candidate with the 2024 Republican nomination, has accused Bragg, a Democrat, of pursuing the case for political gain. The GOP leaders echoed that accusation Thursday, and claimed their investigation might inform future legislation.
“The New York County District Attorney’s unprecedented prosecutorial conduct requires oversight to inform the consideration of potential legislative reforms that would, if enacted, insulate current and former Presidents from such politically motivated state and local prosecutions,” they wrote.
Bragg has denied pursuing the case for political ends. On Tuesday, he said during a press conference that a “thorough investigation” preceded bringing charges against Trump.
“This is the business capital of the world,” Bragg said about New York City. “We regularly do cases involving false business statements. The bedrock of the basis for business integrity and a well-functioning business marketplace is accurate record-keeping.”
Bragg’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, argued in a pair of March letters that the congressional investigation was an “unprecedent[ed]” interference into an ongoing criminal inquiry and a violation of New York’s sovereignty, rebuffing the chairmen’s demand for document and Bragg’s testimony.
Jordan, Comer and Steil wrote in their letter that Pomerantz should not be shielded from testifying about his experiences investigating Trump because he published a book about his work on the case and discussed it in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
“You have no basis to decline to testify about matters before the Committee that you have already discussed in your book and/or on a prime-time television program with an audience in the millions,” they wrote.
A spokesperson for Pomerantz did not return a request for comment.
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