- Jim Jordan, the staunchly pro-Trump Republican now leading House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz
- Pomerantz spent years investigating Donald Trump but had a falling out with the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, and left his job
- Bragg had tried to prevent Pomerantz from being called to speak to Jordan’s committee, which is investigating the ‘political persecution’ of Trump
The Manhattan district attorney’s attempt to block a former prosecutor from testifying in Congress about efforts to prosecute Donald Trump failed on Wednesday, with a judge ruling that Mark Pomerantz could be called to testify.
Pomerantz worked for years on the Trump investigation, but left the job after clashing with Alvin Bragg, the district attorney, over the direction of the case.
He recently wrote a book about his work pursuing Trump and discussed the investigation in interviews on 60 Minutes and other shows.
Jordan sought Pomerantz’s testimony, but Bragg sued to block it.
Bragg’s lawyer, Theodore Boutrous, argued that seeking Pomerantz’s testimony was part of a ‘transparent campaign to intimidate and attack’ Bragg and that Congress was ‘invading a state’ to investigate a local prosecutor when it had no authority to do so.
On Wednesday, Bragg was overruled.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil rejected Bragg’s request for a temporary restraining order, finding that Jordan had a valid legislative purpose in issuing the subpoena to Pomerantz.
‘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,’ Vyskocil wrote in a 25-page opinion.
‘Mr Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition. No one is above the law.’
Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, ruled two hours after a hearing in which she peppered lawyers on both sides with questions, asking them to parse thorny issues of sovereignty, separation of powers and Congressional oversight arising from the historic indictment.
Acknowledging the ‘political dogfights’ surrounding the case, the judge said in her ruling that she ‘does not endorse either side’s agenda.’
She encouraged both sides to speak and ‘reach a mutually agreeable compromise’ on how Pomerantz’s deposition will proceed.
Jordan is seeking to question him Thursday morning in Washington.
‘Today’s decision shows that Congress has the ability to conduct oversight and issue subpoenas to people like Mark Pomerantz, and we look forward to his deposition before the Judiciary Committee,’ said Jordan’s spokesperson, Russell Dye.
