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By Katherine Fung
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- Three top House Republicans sent a letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg demanding documents and communications related to the DA's investigation of Donald Trump ahead of his possible arrest.
- The letter demands a list of all documents and communications between Bragg's office and the Justice Department regarding a possible indictment, as well as a transcribed interview with Bragg.
- The move is backed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has called for calm as Trump has urged his supporters to protest if he is arrested.
Top House Republicans are rushing to Donald Trump's aid ahead of his possibly imminent arrest, which the former president says could come as early as Tuesday morning.
On Monday, three GOP chairmen of House committees sent a letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg demanding a list of documents and communications made with the Justice Department (DOJ) regarding a possible Trump indictment by the DA's office.
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"You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office," Representatives Jim Jordan, Bryan Steil and James Comer wrote. The three Republicans chair the House's Judiciary, Administration and Oversight committees, respectively.
"Your decision to pursue such a politically motivated prosecution—while adopting progressive criminal justice policies that allow career 'criminals [to] run the streets' of Manhattan—requires congressional scrutiny about how public safety funds appropriated by Congress are implemented by local law-enforcement agencies," the letter said.
The request comes a day before Trump said he expects to be arrested in Manhattan. Over the weekend, the former president said he had learned that he would face indictment Tuesday in connection with a hush money payment he allegedly made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. While hush money payments are not illegal, Bragg's office is deciding whether to charge Trump with falsifying the Trump Organization's business records.
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The records that House Republicans are demanding for "oversight" are:
- All documents and communications between Bragg's office and federal law enforcement agencies, including all subsets of the DOJ, related to the investigation of Trump.
- All documents and communications sent or received by former employees Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz referring or relating to Trump.
- All documents and communications related to receipt and use of federal funds by Bragg's office.
The three House Republicans are also asking for Bragg's testimony in a transcribed interview—a demand they asked him to schedule no later than Thursday morning.
Bragg's office told Newsweek in a statement that the district attorney "will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process, nor will we let baseless accusations deter us from fairly applying the law."
"In every prosecution, we follow the law without fear or favor to uncover the truth. Our skilled, honest and dedicated lawyers remain hard at work," the DA's office said.
They also countered the claims made in the letter, saying that homicides and shootings in Manhattan have both fallen by double digits since Bragg's administration. The office also noted that the murder rate in New York City remains lower than that of the most populous cities in the states that Jordan, Steil and Comer represent—Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky.
It has been reported that the move by Jordan, Steil and Comer is backed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He told Politico on Saturday that he was "directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions."
Although McCarthy gave a full-throated defense of Trump over the weekend, he has called for calm amid the former president's calls for protests if he is arrested.
"I do not believe there should be any violence [in response] to this," McCarthy told reporters from Orlando, Florida.
Trump, on the other hand, has urged his supporters to "PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!"
Update 03/20/23 10:19 p.m. This story was updated with comment from Bragg's office.
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