#Jordan subpoenas former prosecutor in Trump hush money investigation

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Thursday subpoenaed a former Manhattan District Attorney’s Office prosecutor who had worked on the office’s investigation into hush money payments from former President Trump.

The move escalates a fledgling investigation into Bragg’s office that began shortly after Trump predicted his arrest in connection with the probe and comes as Jordan has said he is weighing a subpoena to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).

The subpoena to Mark Pomerantz follows a letter asking him to speak with the committee about his resignation from the office after leading the investigation into Trump.

“Based on your unique role as a special assistant district attorney leading the investigation into President Trump’s finances, you are uniquely situated to provide information that is relevant and necessary to inform the Committee’s oversight and potential legislative reforms,” Jordan wrote in the letter.

He goes on to address a book penned by Pomerantz about efforts to prosecute Trump as well as television appearances made to discuss the case.

“As a result, you have no basis to decline to testify about matters before the Committee that you have already discussed in your book and/or on a prime-time television program with an audience in the millions, including on the basis of any purported duty of confidentiality or privilege interest,” Jordan added.

Jordan sent initial testimony requests to Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, former Manhattan Special Assistant District Attorney who also resigned from Bragg’s Trump investigation around the same time as Pomerantz, on Mar. 22 following an announcement from Trump last month that he expected to be arrested in the hush-money probe.

Jordan has separately teamed up with House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) – at the encouragement of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – to seek documents and testimony from Bragg himself about the case, charging that the case is politically motivated.

The requests have spurred a battle between the House GOP investigators and Bragg over questions of Congressional jurisdiction and warnings over interfering in an ongoing criminal case. 

The cover letter of the subpoena to Pomerantz delves deep into passages from his book, teasing out his thoughts on witnesses and Trump himself, as well as the personal consequence of being involved in the first-ever criminal prosecution of a president.

“These perceptions appear to have colored your work as a special assistant district attorney, to the point that you even resigned because the investigation into President Trump was not proceeding fast enough for your liking,” Jordan writes.

“In your resignation letter, you prejudged the results of the District Attorney’s investigation, writing that ‘Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations,’ and vowing not to be a ‘passive participant’ to “a grave failure of justice.”