Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has tentatively agreed to testify before Congress following the historic conviction of former President Donald Trump.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter requesting Bragg’s testimony on May 31, the day after a New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of first-degree falsification of business records. The former president faces the possibility of jail time.
Jordan suggested June 13 as a date, but Bragg rejected it. According to a letter signed Friday by attorney Leslie Dubreck, he suggested a date after Trump’s sentencing hearing next month would be more appropriate.
It would be “potentially detrimental” to the “fair administration of justice” for Bragg’s office staff to participate in hearings where they could be asked questions about Trump’s case before the former president’s sentencing date, currently scheduled for July 11 in Double Decker Court. I read your letter.
Jordan wants Bragg to appear before the Special Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, which was established last year in response to complaints from the right.
Bragg’s office requested additional information about the “scope and purpose” of the proposed hearing. Jordan also invited prosecutor Michael Colangelo to testify. Dubeck’s letter indicates that it was a possibility.
Trump claimed without evidence that President Joe Biden somehow orchestrated the 2016 New York trial centered on hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump’s allies in Congress have pushed the idea that he is being wrongfully prosecuted. Jordan’s first letter to Bragg referred to Trump’s trial as “the latest political indictment.”
Colangelo has become the target of right-wing ridicule for his work at the Justice Department. The partisan collusion charges against him ignore the department’s long-standing policy of independence from the presidency, despite Trump-era deviations. Trump’s silence trial was also held at the state level. The charging decision was made by state officials led by Bragg, independent of federal agencies.
