(DCWatchdog.com) – Republican US Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has moved to counteract the indictment of former President Donald Trump by Manhattan’s Democrat DA, Alvin Bragg.
In a letter on Thursday, Jordan subpoenaed for a deposition Mark Pomerantz, the former New York County Special Assistant District Attorney, Newsmax reported.
Jordan’s move comes after Manhattan DA Bragg snubbed a GOP-led House Oversight Committee request to provide information on Trump’s indictment.
The Democrat prosecutor argued that the House committee lacked authority to make the request, which presented an “incursion” into the “sovereignty” of the state of New York.
Earlier this week, former President Trump was arranged in a Manhattan court on financial crime charges over an alleged 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. He pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts.
“In light of your disregard of our earlier voluntary request, please find attached a subpoena compelling your appearance for a deposition,” House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jorden wrote to Pomerantz.
Pomerantz was a special assistant district attorney in Manhattan in 2021 and early 2022. As the Judiciary Committee is conducting oversight of Trump’s “unprecedented” indictment, on March 22, he was asked to appear voluntarily.
On March 27, Pomerantz responded, “At the instruction of the New York County District Attorney’s Office, you would not cooperate with our oversight.”
Former President Trump has denounced Pomerantz’s role in Bragg’s investigation and Pomerantz’s book, “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account.”
“This prosecutor named Mark Pomerantz wrote and published a book, saying all sorts of privileged things and has been very strongly reprimanded. He was reprimanded so strongly. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said in his address on Tuesday night at home in Florida after he was arraigned.
“Even District Attorney Bragg was furious with him. They were having a tremendous fight in the office because of it,” Trump added.
In his letter, House Judiciary Committee chief Jim Jordan quotes the Democrats’ efforts “to get Trump” as outlined in Pomerantz’s book.
“You explain that this ‘collective weight’ of President Trump’s conduct over the years’ left no doubt in [your] mind that [President] Trump deserved to be prosecuted,'” Jordan’s letter said.
“In other words, as a special assistant district attorney, you seem, for reasons unrelated to the facts of this particular investigation, to have been searching for any basis on which to bring criminal charges,” he added.
“Your public resignation reportedly left District Attorney Bragg’ deeply stung,’ and caused him to issue an ‘unusual’ public statement ’emphasizing that the investigation into Trump and his business was far from over.’ Your book also contributed to the ‘political pressure’ on District Attorney Bragg to bring charges against former President Trump,” Jordan told Pomerantz.
He rejected the latter’s claim of immunity from oversight by the US Congress.
“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, including on the basis of any purported duty of confidentiality or privilege interest,” Jordan concluded.
Rep. Jim Jordan has subpoenaed former New York County Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz for a deposition in a letter Thursday. https://t.co/urlmxJIuxm
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) April 6, 2023
