House Republican allies of former President Donald Trump plan a hearing in New York next week on what they call Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “pro-crime, anti-victim policies.”
(Bloomberg) — House Republican allies of former President Donald Trump plan a hearing in New York next week on what they call Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “pro-crime, anti-victim policies.”
The planned April 17 “field hearing” by the GOP-led Judiciary Committee is the latest move to focus on Bragg after his office brought an indictment against the former president last week.
The panel will hold the hearing at the Javits Federal Building in Lower Manhattan. No witnesses have been announced.
An advisory distributed by Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio says the hearing will focus on how Bragg’s policies “have led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents.”
A spokesman for Bragg’s office released a statement saying that “the House GOP is coming to the safest big city in America for a political stunt.”
“This hearing won’t engage in actual efforts to increase public safety, such as supporting national gun legislation and shutting down the iron pipeline,” the statement continued, referring to weapons smuggling from states with weaker firearms laws.
Jordan and other Republicans have accused Bragg of undertaking a politically motivated prosecution of Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Jordan last week subpoenaed former New York prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who quit Bragg’s team last year after advocating for the prosecution of Trump.
Jordan contends that since his resignation, Pomerantz had made extensive public statements about the Trump investigation that put pressure on Bragg to act.
The Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic group monitoring House Republican investigations, labeled the planned hearing “retaliation” for the Trump indictment.
“A field hearing from the Judiciary Committee in New York City is only another taxpayer-funded political stunt spearheaded by Jim Jordan and the MAGA GOP,” the group’s executive director, Kyle Herrig, said in a statement.
(Updates with Bragg comment, in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)
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