(CNN) House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee showed the lengths they are willing to go to undermine Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against former President Donald Trump at a Monday New York field hearing at Bragg’s home.
House Republicans sought to make the case that Bragg was more focused on prosecuting Trump for political reasons than solving crime in New York City, a claim that Bragg has vehemently denied.
Democrats pushed back, arguing that Republicans were acting as an extension of Trump’s defense team and saying they should be focusing on public safety issues like gun violence. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA’s office said in a statement before the hearing that the event was a “political stunt.”
The hearing, which allegedly focuses on crime in New York, comes as the legal drama between Bragg and House Republicans has intensified in recent days. Bragg sued House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and sought to block him from taking certain investigative steps, arguing that Congress does not have the authority to oversee criminal prosecutions at the state level.
It serves as the latest example of how Trump continues to wield enormous power on Capitol Hill as House Republicans seek to curry favor with the former president, who has defended himself through their investigations and often update him and his closest advisers on their progress. After his impeachment, Trump called members of the House GOP leadership and key committee members to drum up support on Capitol Hill, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan opened Monday’s hearing by going after Bragg for being “soft on crime.”
“Here in Manhattan, the scales of justice are weighed down by politics. For the District Attorney, justice is not blind. It’s about finding opportunities to advance a political agenda, a radical agenda of politics rather than law enforcement,” Jordan said in his opening remarks.
Despite claims from leading Republicans, Manhattan’s current levels of both violent crime in general and homicide in particular have declined significantly from record levels in the early 1990s. .
While there was an increase in many types of crime in Manhattan in 2022 compared to 2021, many crimes returned significantly in 2023. Bragg took office as Manhattan DA in 2022.
Monday’s hearing is the first in a series of field hearings targeting crime in Democratic-run cities, a source familiar with the Republicans’ plans told CNN.
Democrats, on the other hand, will argue at the hearing that if Republicans really cared about violent crime, they would not have held the hearing in Manhattan, where crime is lower compared to other New York City boroughs, and , more than that, will focus on crime. in rural areas, a source familiar with the Democrats’ plans told CNN.
Committee Democrats will also try to pivot the conversation to gun violence, the source added, and argue that Republicans refuse to work on gun legislation even as mass shootings continue to plague the country. Before the hearing, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary panel, and gun safety advocates held a news conference.
Nadler said before the hearing, “this hearing was called for one reason, and one reason only: to protect Donald Trump.”
“Jim Jordan and his Republican accomplices are acting as an extension of the Trump defense team … that’s an egregious abuse of power,” Nadler said.
Monday’s event marked the first time that Democrats on the committee participated in a field hearing this session of Congress.
Both sides also lobbied to get more members to be added to the hearing, a standard practice, but a move that underscores each party’s desire to bring more voices to help express their case. individual messages. Judiciary Republicans added to their side the Dais House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who represents a district in upstate New York.
“I look forward to holding Democrats accountable for their failure to prosecute crimes and instead engaging in illegal political hunting against their political opponents,” Stefanik said in a statement to CNN. The New York Republican is among GOP lawmakers who have spoken to Trump since he was impeached, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The New York Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat will also participate in Monday’s field hearing. In a joint statement, the couple argued that through this hearing the Republicans are trying to “interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation.”
The witnesses
Witnesses at the field hearing highlighted the major arguments sought by each party.
Many of the witnesses called by Republicans spoke firsthand about the crime and violence they experienced in New York as they criticized Bragg for not prosecuting crimes adequately.
Those called by House Democrats pointed to statistics showing that crime in New York City is decreasing, argued that Republicans do not want to address gun laws, and claimed that Republicans held the hearing for political purposes.
A Democratic member of the New York City Council called by Republicans on the panel, Robert F. Holden, said, “I’ve lived here in New York City for 71 years. I’ve seen bad times, long crimes … I’ve never seen the lawlessness I’m seeing now in New York City in my life.”
Several witnesses called by the Republican side criticized Bragg for a memo he released early in his tenure — some of which has since been redacted — that directed prosecutors to avoid seeking prison time for of many serious crimes.
The Founder of Victims Rights NY, Jennifer Harrison, said, “from day one, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that he would not prosecute even the most violent crimes in his now infamous memo. We saw the immediate result.”
Meanwhile, in a line of inquiry led by Nadler, Third Way’s Executive Vice President for Policy, Jim Kessler, outlined how the crime rate in New York City is lower than the national average and even lower in Ohio. , where Jordan lives.
As a result, Democratic Rep. David Cicilline made a request to move the hearing to Monday in Ohio, which was quickly rejected.
The Executive Director for New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Rebecca Fischer, called by Democrats, argued that gun violence in New York is the result of a lack of action at the national level.
“The national gun sales crisis is largely the result of weak gun laws in some states, and the fact that Congress has not implemented federal reforms to prevent gun violence,” said Fischer.
The Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, meanwhile, began her questioning by calling out violent crime but said Congress has no jurisdiction over crime in New York.
“I’ll just say that all of us on this committee, regardless of our party, are against crime and we all have sympathy for victims of crime,” Lofgren said. “But I would also say that we have no jurisdiction. The federal government has no jurisdiction over state and local prosecutions. That’s up to the voters in every state and every locality.”
The legal drama
Bragg pushed back against GOP efforts to investigate his criminal investigation, claiming in his lawsuit, “Congress lacks any valid legislative intent to engage in an independent campaign of harassment in retaliation for the District Attorney’s investigation and prosecution of Mr. Trump under New York laws.”
The district attorney also targeted Republicans for interfering in an ongoing criminal case, writing that “instead of allowing the criminal process to proceed in its ordinary course, Chairman Jordan and the Committee engaged in a campaign of intimidation, retaliation, and obstruction.”
Bragg asked the court to block the Judiciary committee’s subpoena for testimony from a former senior prosecutor in his office, Mark Pomerantz. Pomerantz resigned from the DA’s office in 2022, after Bragg said he was not ready to pursue criminal charges against Trump. Pomerantz, in his resignation letter, said Trump was “guilty of numerous criminal violations” related to his annual financial statements.
House Republicans are urging a federal judge to reject a request by the Manhattan district attorney’s office to block a subpoena for testimony from a former prosecutor, saying such a move would hinder themselves investigation.
Jordan’s lawyers also argued that they are immune from Bragg’s lawsuit under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause that protects lawmakers from being sued for actions stemming from their legislative actions.
Jordan also requested documents and testimony from Bragg, as well as information from another former prosecutor from his office, as part of Jordan’s congressional investigation. The deal from Bragg’s office has so far prevented a congressional subpoena for now.
Republicans seized on Pomerantz’s past comments as a sign that the 34 felony criminal charges filed against Trump this year in Manhattan were politically motivated. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
The question is about Bragg’s use of federal funds
House Republicans have made the Manhattan District Attorney’s office using federal funds their main argument for why they have jurisdiction over Bragg’s case.
Bragg’s office disclosed in a recent letter that of the more than one billion dollars in asset forfeiture funds it has helped secure for the federal government, approximately $5,000 has been spent on costs. related to Trump or the Trump organization between October 2019 and August 2021, but that was continued. no federal grant money was used for the costs of the Trump investigation.
Republicans seized on this revelation, and began introducing legislation on Bragg.
House GOP Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina introduced legislation in the House last week that would allow former and current presidents and vice presidents the ability to transfer their own criminal or civil cases from state court to a federal one. court GOP Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona introduced a pair of bills, one of which would defund the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
In his lawsuit, Bragg claimed that House Republicans “created new legislative goals.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed.
