House Republicans are taking their fight against Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney investigating former President Donald Trump, to the Big Apple.
The Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), announced on Monday a field hearing scheduled for next week. The event, set for next Monday at 9 a.m., is expected to feature violent crime victims, whom Republicans argue the prosecutor is ignoring in favor of a high-profile political target.
“The hearing, ‘Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,’ will examine how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s pro-crime, anti-victim policies have led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents,” said a press release.
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 10, 2023
So far, no witnesses are listed, but the panel said the hearing would take place in the Javits Federal Building, about a five-minute walk from the district attorney’s main office, and be live-streamed.
The announcement marks another escalation in the feud between congressional Republicans aligned with Trump and Bragg, who has been investigating hush money payments during the 2016 election cycle. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records last week after being indicted by a grand jury.
Bragg, a Democrat, has faced accusations of being “soft” on crime since he started his term as district attorney at the start of 2022. He issued a “Day One” memo, advising prosecutors to step back from cases with low-level offenses and avoid seeking prison sentences except for the most serious of crimes to achieve “fairness and safety.” But Bragg backtracked a month later after receiving what he called “valuable feedback.”
Headlines about acts of violence in the city of more than eight million people are constant and major crimes did indeed spike last year in New York City. However, fact-checkers have pushed back on assertions by Trump and others that violent crime in Manhattan has reached record levels, pointing to the highs of the 1990s.
Jordan’s panel is already engaged in an investigation into Bragg, demanding communications, documents, and testimony from the prosecutor’s office. The chairman announced last week a subpoena demanding a deposition from former New York County Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz, who has been gung-ho about criminally charging Trump.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
In response to the subpoena, Bragg’s office released a statement criticizing the House GOP for an “attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing New York criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have criticized their Republican colleagues for focusing so much on Bragg.
“In a desperate attempt to protect Mr. Trump, the most extreme House Republicans are already trying to bully the law enforcement officers involved,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member on the panel, said in a statement after Trump was indicted. “I do not know how this case will be decided, but I do know that DA Bragg will not be deterred or intimidated by the political stunts Jim Jordan and [House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy throw at him.”
Jordan has defended the probe, saying the Judiciary Committee “is conducting oversight of Bragg’s unprecedented prosecutorial conduct to inform the consideration of potential legislative reforms that would, among other things, prevent state or local politically motivated prosecutions of current or former presidents.”