by WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday subpoenaed one of the former Manhattan prosecutors who was leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before resigning last year in a clash over the direction of the investigation.
Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, ordered Mark Pomerantz to testify before the committee by April 30. Trump was charged in a 34-count indictment in connection with a silent money scheme involving a porn actor.
Pomerantz refused to voluntarily cooperate with the committee’s request last month under instruction from Bragg’s office, citing the ongoing investigation. The Manhattan district attorney’s office accused the Jordanian committee of exceeding its legal authority and infringing on the sovereignty of New York State.
Jordan has now written in a letter to Pomerantz: “Based on your unique role as Special Assistant District Attorney leading the investigation into President Trump’s finances, you are uniquely positioned to provide relevant and necessary information to inform Committee oversight and legislative potential. reforms”.
A request for comment from Pomerantz was not immediately returned.
Bragg called the subpoena another example of a Republican “attempting to undermine an active investigation and ongoing criminal case in New York.”
“Repeated efforts to weaken the actions of state and local law enforcement are an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law,” Bragg wrote in a tweet.
Republicans had rallied behind Trump ahead of his indictment on Tuesday, calling Bragg’s investigation a “political persecution.” Jordan and other top GOP lawmakers see Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who were senior deputies in charge of the day-to-day investigation, as catalysts for Bragg’s decision to move forward with the case. silence.
The pair began the investigation under former district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., and Bragg asked them to stay on when he took office in January. Vance and Bragg are both Democrats.
Trump’s indictment centers on allegations that he falsified his private company’s internal business records while trying to cover up an effort to illegally influence the 2016 election by arranging payments that silenced the public. allegations potentially prejudicial to his candidacy. It includes 34 counts of falsifying records related to checks Trump sent to his personal attorney and problem-solver to reimburse him for his role in paying a porn actor who said he had extramarital sex. with Trump years earlier.
Pomerantz released a book earlier this year called “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account.” In the book, he said Vance cleared him in December 2021 to seek Trump’s indictment. He described the silent money payments — made or arranged by Cohen — as perhaps the most difficult and legally burdensome of the potential cases against the former president.
Jordan wrote Thursday that Pomerantz should be allowed to cooperate since he has “already discussed many topics relevant to our oversight” in the book he published and promoted. He goes on to say that Pomerantz’s own book details how the matter regarding “Trump appears to have been politically motivated.”
“Specifically, you describe your eagerness to investigate President Trump, writing that you were ‘thrilled’ to join a group of unpaid attorneys advising on the Trump investigations, and joking that the salary negotiations had broken down.” well done “because you would have paid to join the investigation,” Jordan’s letter continues.
Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.
Follow AP coverage of former President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.
