Former prosecutor in Trump case subpoenaed

By: Farnoush Amiri
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Thursday [04/06/2023] subpoenaed one of the former Manhattan prosecutors who had been leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before quitting last year [2022] in a clash over the direction of the probe.
..... Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, ordered Mark Pomerantz to testify before the committee by April 30. [2023] The subpoena, reviewed by The Associated Press, is the latest escalation by Republicans as they probe Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, days after Trump was charged in a 34-count felony indictment in connection with a hush money scheme involving a pron actor>
..... Pomerantz refused to voluntarily cooperate with the committee's request last month [03/2023] at the instruction of Bragg's office, citing the ongoing investigation. The Manhattan D.A.'s office has accused Jordan's committee of overstepping its legal authority and infringing on New York state sovereignty.
..... Jordan has now written in a letter to Pomerantz, "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 hat is relevant and necessary to inform the Committee's oversight and potential legislative reforms."
..... A request for comment from Promrantz was not immediately returned.
..... Republicans rallied around Trump in the lead-up to his indictment Tuesday, [4/05/2023] labeling Bragg's investigation a "political persecution." Jordan and other senior GOP lawmakers see Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who were top deputies tasked with running the investigation on a day-to-day basis, as catalysts for Bragg's decision to move ahead with the hush money case.
..... Both men started on the probe under former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., and Bragg asked them to stay when he took office in January. [2022] Both Vance and Bragg are Democrats.
..... The Trump indictment centers on allegations that he falsified internal business records at his private company while trying to cover up an effort to illegally influence the 2016 election by arranging payments that silenced claims potentially harmful to his candidacy. It includes 34 counts of falsifying records related to checks Trump sent to his personal lawyer and problem-solver to reimburse him for his role in paying off a porn actor who said she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
..... Pomerantz released a book earlier this year [02/2023] titled "People vs. Donald Trump: an Inside Account." In the book, he said that Vance authorized him in December 2021 to seek Trump's indictment. he has portrayed the hush-money payments - made or arranged by Cohen - as perhaps the most challenging and legally fraught of the potential cases against the former president.
..... Jordan write Thursday [04/06/2023] that Pomrantz should be allowed to cooperate since he has "already discussed many of the topics relevant to our oversight" in the book he published and promoted. He goes on to say that Pomerantz's own book details how the case into "Trump appears to have been politically motivated."

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