A federal judge in New York ruled on Wednesday that a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that indicted Donald Trump must comply with a subpoena from Congress.
“No one is above the law,” District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil wrote in her ruling.
“The subpoena was issued with a ‘valid legislative purpose’ in connection with the ‘broad’ and ‘indispensable’ congressional power to ‘conduct investigations,’” the ruling added. “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 holding means that former Manhattan special assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz may have to appear before the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee, which has launched an investigation into the Trump probe in Manhattan.
“We are looking into whether or not there is a problem with politically motivated prosecutions of former presidents and whether the motivated prosecutions of former presidents is using federal funds,” attorney Matthew Berry said on behalf of the committee during deliberations in court.
Mr Pomerantz resigned in protest last year from the DA’s office and later penned a book in which he called Mr Trump “a malignant narcissist, and perhaps even a megalomaniac who posed a real danger to the country and the ideals that mattered to [him]” and said the ex-president was guilty of numerous crimes.
The current Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg asked a federal court last week to stop the House committee from subpoenaing Mr Pomerantz, calling the effort “an unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress.”
“We respectfully disagree with the District Court’s decision and are seeking a stay pending appeal,” the Manhattan DA’s office told The Independent in a statement.
House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan has threatened to subpoena other officials in the DA’s office, including Mr Bragg.
“Everything’s on the table,” Mr Jordan told Fox Business Network’s Sunday Morning Futures.
At the beginning of April, the former president was indicted on and pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing hush money payments made to an adult film actress who claimed she had an affair with Mr Trump.
