OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has agreed to appear before a House committee investigating his case against former President Donald Trump, but it isn’t likely to happen before Trump is sentenced next month.
In late May, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, wrote to Bragg following Trump’s conviction in his hush money trial. He accused Bragg of conducting a “political prosecution” and requested his testimony at a hearing scheduled for June 13, CBS News reported.
In response, the Manhattan district attorney’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, said the prosecutor’s office was “committed to voluntary cooperation.” The cooperation, the letter added, included making Bragg, a Democrat, available to testify “at an agreed-upon date.” However, Dubeck noted that the date picked by the chairman presented “presents various scheduling conflicts.”
The article pointed out that the legal proceedings against Trump are ongoing. Trump, convicted of falsifying records to conceal hush money payments to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential campaign, is scheduled for sentencing on July 11. Prior to the sentencing, prosecutors will submit recommendations to the judge regarding the appropriate punishment for Trump, CBS reported.
“The trial court and reviewing appellate courts have issued numerous orders for the purpose of protecting the fair administration of justice in People v. Trump, and to participate in a public hearing at this time would be potentially detrimental to those efforts,” the letter said.
CBS added:
Jordan has also asked for testimony from Matthew Colangelo, one of the lead prosecutors in the Trump case. Bragg’s office didn’t rule that out, but said in the letter that it would “evaluate the propriety” of allowing an assistant district attorney to testify publicly about an active prosecution.
Jordan, an Ohio Republican, has proposed withholding federal funding from any entity that attempts to prosecute a former president. He has also railed against what he’s described as the “weaponization of the federal government.”
The effort targets the prosecutors in charge of the cases against Trump, according to Fox News. The prosecutors include Bragg, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Jordan’s office said in a statement that he also proposes “reining in abusive federal law enforcement agencies, including zeroing out Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office political witch hunt.”
In a letter to House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, Jordan said the House Judiciary Committee has “conducted oversight of the troubling rise in politicized prosecutions and the use of abusive ‘lawfare’ tactics to target political opponents.”
Jordan said “rogue prosecutors” have abused “the rules of professional conduct and their duty to do justice in service of politicized ends.”
“He recommended that the Appropriations Committee adopt language to eliminate federal funding for state prosecutors or state attorneys general involved in such activity and ‘to zero out federal funding for federal prosecutors engaged in such abuse,’” Axios reported.
The former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee was charged by Bragg with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty, but 12 jurors found him guilty on all counts.
In total, Trump faces a maximum sentence of 136 years behind bars. But some legal experts say the trial is “a target-rich environment for appeal,” which Trump is expected to pursue.
“I believe that the case will be reversed eventually either in the state or federal systems,” Jonathan Turley, constitutional law attorney and Fox News contributor, told the network hours after Trump’s conviction.
“However, this was the worst expectation for a trial in Manhattan,” he said. “I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes.”
“The trial is a target-rich environment for appeal. However, that appeal will stretch beyond the election. In the meantime, Democrats and President Biden can add ‘convicted felon’ to the political mantra,” he said.
