Judge Rules House GOP Can Subpoena Ex-Prosecutor From Trump Probe

 A former Manhattan prosecutor must testify to the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee about the criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Following a hearing, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil issued a ruling that rejected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s request to block a subpoena aimed at Mark Pomerantz, who has been adamant that Trump should be charged.

“The subpoena was issued with a ‘valid legislative purpose’ in connection with the ‘broad’ and ‘indispensable’ congressional power to ‘conduct investigations,'” Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, wrote in her ruling.

“It is not the role of the federal judiciary to dictate what legislation Congress may consider or how it should conduct its deliberations in that connection,” the judge added. “Mr. Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition. No one is above the law.”

Pomerantz abruptly resigned along with one other Manhattan prosecutor leading the Trump inquiry in February of last year after Bragg reportedly expressed doubts about the case he inherited from his predecessor. In a resignation letter that later came to light, Pomerantz insisted Trump was “guilty of numerous felony violations.” He has since opened a law firm with the other prosecutor who quit, Carey Dunne, and earlier this year participated in a media tour for a new book called “People vs. Donald Trump.”

A Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump late last month, after which the former president pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of what Bragg alleged to be a “catch-and-kill” scheme to influence the 2016 election. Trump, who is months into a 2024 presidential campaign, denies any wrongdoing.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), an ally of Trump, has been conducting an investigation into the Manhattan case. In seeking Pomerantz’s testimony, Jordan sent a subpoena, saying the former prosecutor’s public statements about the inquiry into accusations that Trump and his associates made hush money payments during the 2016 election cycle suggested the Manhattan district attorney’s case was politically motivated.  Bragg, a Democrat, then filed a lawsuit seeking to block the subpoena while accusing Jordan of “obstruction and interference.”

Russell Dye, spokesperson for Jordan, said the judge’s decision on Wednesday “shows that Congress has the ability to conduct oversight and issue subpoenas to people like Mark Pomeranz, and we look forward to his deposition before the Judiciary Committee.”

But the legal fight over the subpoena is not over.

Bragg’s team and Pomerantz moved to appeal the decision to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. Though Pomerantz had been set to testify on Thursday morning, the federal appeals court agreed to a pause so that a three-judge panel could consider the motion seeking a stay pending appeal of the district court’s order. Both sides were ordered to file responses in the coming days.