Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg fired back at House Republicans seeking to probe his reported case against former President Donald Trump, offering the first public response to the former president’s claim that he would be indicted by Bragg’s office soon.
“Your letter dated March 20, 2023 (the ‘Letter’), in contrast, is an [unprecedented] inquiry into a pending local prosecution,” Bragg’s office wrote (pdf) to House Judiciary Republicans in the letter, which was posted online by multiple news outlets. It said that the GOP’s letter “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day, and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”
If Bragg’s office were to comply with the request, it would “interfere with law enforcement,” and the GOP letter represents an “unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty,” according to the letter. It was written by Bragg’s general counsel, Leslie B. Dubeck, and dated March 23.
The letter represents the first public comments Bragg made specifically about the investigation into Trump after the former president announced last weekend that he would be indicted on Tuesday, although Tuesday passed without any charges being filed against him. So far, Epoch Times requests for comment to Bragg’s office have gone unanswered.
However, the letter provided little insight into the investigation and whether the grand jury will return an indictment against Trump. Several witnesses, including former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and fellow lawyer Robert Costello, testified in front of the grand jury in recent days, triggering even more speculation about the case.
“If a grand jury brings charges against Donald Trump, the DA’s Office will have an obligation, as in every case, to provide a significant amount of discovery from its files to the defendant so that he may prepare a defense,” the document stated. House Republican assertions that his office is “pursuing a prosecution for political purposes is unfounded, and regardless, the proper forum for such a challenge is the Courts of New York, which are equipped to consider and review such objections.”
