The House Judiciary Committee released a report criticizing the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for allowing political motivations to influence the prosecution of former President Trump. The report claimed that charges brought against Trump were based on a low threshold to prosecute political opponents. The committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, has been investigating the multi-year investigation into Trump since last year when current DA Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on charges of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made before the 2016 election. Trump pleaded not guilty, and his trial is ongoing in New York City. The report questioned the novel legal theory used by Bragg to prosecute Trump, which had been previously declined by federal prosecutors.
The report highlighted the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute the case in 2019, but Bragg convened a new grand jury in January 2023 to evaluate the issue. The report suggested that Trump’s announcement to run for president in 2024 may have influenced the decision to bring charges against him. The committee expressed concerns about politically motivated prosecutions of current and former presidents by elected state and local prosecutors, particularly in jurisdictions like New York County. The report recommended potential legislative reforms to prevent such politically motivated prosecutions.
Former Manhattan DA prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked on the Trump investigation, testified before the committee but declined to answer most questions due to the ongoing investigation. Pomerantz, a donor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, resigned after expressing doubts about pursuing a case against Trump under Bragg’s leadership. The committee quoted Pomerantz’s book, which they claimed revealed his animus against Trump. Chairman Jim Jordan criticized Pomerantz for leaving retirement to pursue prosecuting Trump and for writing a book to pressure Bragg to bring charges.
The committee accused Bragg’s tenure as district attorney of contributing to rising crime in New York City by instituting policies that were pro-crime and anti-victim. Bragg issued a memo directing assistant DAs to avoid prosecuting certain crimes, including trespassing and prostitution, and considered armed robberies as misdemeanor larceny instead of felonies. The committee expressed concerns about the dangerous precedent set by Bragg’s indictment of Trump, which they believed could lead to politically motivated prosecutions or threatened prosecutions of political opponents, including presidents. Republicans on the committee suggested that Bragg’s actions could inspire other prosecutors to pursue politically motivated investigations and indictments of President Trump.
The report emphasized the importance of upholding the rule of law and ensuring that justice is blind and applied fairly and equally. The committee criticized Bragg’s politically motivated indictment of Trump for using the criminal justice system to attack an individual he politically disagrees with, potentially eroding public confidence in the justice system. Bragg’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the report. The House Judiciary Committee’s report raised concerns about the dangers of politically motivated prosecutions of current and former presidents and called for legislative reforms to prevent such abuses of prosecutorial power.
