It was nearly 15 months ago when House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan thought it’d be a good idea to interfere in an ongoing local criminal investigation. Amid reports that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg might indict Donald Trump, the Ohio Republican joined two other GOP committee chairs to ask Bragg to testify before Congress.
In the weeks and months that followed, Jordan kept going, demanding documents and communications from the local prosecutor’s office, apparently indifferent to the fact that there was an ongoing case underway, and the U.S. House arguably doesn’t have jurisdiction over a district attorney’s office.
The Ohioan nevertheless kept sending Bragg correspondence and kept demanding information — and kept getting blown off by the prosecutor, who reminded Jordan that the Judiciary Committee couldn’t intervene in an ongoing case. In fact, at one point last year, Bragg wrote to the right-wing congressman, “We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference.”
As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim recently noted, the day after a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies, Jordan decided to try yet again, calling on Bragg and Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel to the DA’s office, to testify before the Republicans’ so-called “weaponization” committee on June 13. By the chairman’s reasoning, the prosecutors couldn’t say no because the case was no longer ongoing.
As it turns out, his assumptions weren’t quite right. The New York Times reported over the weekend:
Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted former President Donald J. Trump, agreed on Friday to testify before Congress as Republicans seek to discredit Mr. Trump’s conviction. But Mr. Bragg suggested his testimony would need to wait until after Mr. Trump is sentenced next month.
In other words, the district attorney will apparently answer Jordan’s questions once the case is over — and the case will be over after the former president is sentenced.
Bragg’s letter to the GOP lawmaker added that he’s looking for some further clarification as to the scope of the testimony, and it’ll be up to Jordan to respond.
All things considered, the latest exchange between the two men opens the door to the congressman actually getting what he wants: Bragg, in a Capitol Hill committee room, in a chair, on camera, being berated by Republicans with conspiracy theories. It apparently won’t happen this week, but it appears likely to happen at some point over the summer.
That’s not to say the hearing will go well for Trump’s congressional allies. Bragg will almost certainly explain why their conspiracy theories aren’t true — but Jordan and his cohorts live in hope.
They also live in fear: Conservative media figures have told Jordan that they expect him to pursue this line of inquiry against Trump’s prosecutor, even if it doesn’t make sense, and even if it doesn’t amount to anything. Steve Bannon — who has said that Bragg “should be and will be jailed” for his role in the hush money case — has been especially aggressive in trying to bully the congressman into submission.
Evidently, the pressure campaign is having its intended effect.
