DA Alvin Bragg and Rep. Jim Jordan (Photos via AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez and Alex Edelman/Getty Images)
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan’s attorneys asked the Second Circuit on Friday to quickly restore a federal judge’s order forcing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s former deputy to testify at a deposition.
“A judicially imposed delay also would hamper the Committee’s ongoing investigation, inflicting the legally protectable harms of loss of information and the institutional diminution of subpoena power on the Committee,” attorney Matthew Berry wrote in a 48-page legal brief. “There is a ‘clear public interest in maximizing the effectiveness of the investigatory powers of Congress,’ and ‘the investigatory power is one that the courts have long perceived as essential to the successful discharge of the legislative responsibilities of Congress.””
In the legal brief, the Ohio Republican’s lawyers told the appeals court that Bragg’s office hung up on them when a committee staffer inquired about the DA’s use of federal funds.
When the committee’s staffer called back, the person picking up allegedly replied: “Your committee has no jurisdiction over us. You’re wrong. Stop calling us with this bulls—.”
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Donald Trump appointee, found otherwise about the committee’s jurisdiction.
The judge gave the green light for the GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee to depose Mark Pomerantz, who served as one of Bragg’s top prosecutors until resigning in protest more than a year ago. At the time, Pomerantz believed that Bragg was unlikely to prosecute former President Donald Trump. Pomerantz argued that the DA could bring a successful tax case against the former president, and he laid out how he would have done that in his memoir “People v. Trump,” named after a docket that didn’t exist at the time.
Citing that “insider account” of the Trump investigation, the Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena against Pomerantz, arguing that he had no grounds to claim that his well-known views about the probe were confidential.
“In his words, he told the public ‘all about’ his work investigating the former President, and ‘described the inner dialogue of the investigation,’” Berry wrote in his new legal brief. “For example, he recounted internal conversations between attorneys working on the investigation, summarized internal discussions with witnesses, and discussed the attorneys’ mental impressions about the strength or weakness of potential prosecutorial theories.”
On April 11, Bragg sued to block Pomerantz’s testimony, originally slated for Thursday morning. Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, rejected the requested relief on the eve of the deposition.
Within hours of Pomerantz’s scheduled stint on the hot seat, the Second Circuit preserved the status quo on Thursday, pausing any testimony until an appeal could be heard. Jordan’s legal team laid out their written arguments on Friday about why they believe Vyskocil made the right call in denying the request for an injunction.
“The district court denied that motion in a comprehensive 25-page opinion,” Berry wrote. “Among other things, it found that the Committee’s subpoena serves more than one valid legislative purpose.”
The committee claims that the deposition will help lawmakers oversee the use of federal money on the Manhattan DA’s office, even though Bragg has insisted none of the money provided in grants to his office has gone toward the Trump investigation.
Jordan also says he’s considering legislation that would kick criminal charges against a former president out of state court into federal jurisdiction, where judges are not elected and have lifetime tenure.
The legal brief notes that House Republicans already have introduced such a bill, naming it the “No More Political Prosecutions Act.”
During this week’s hearing, Vyskocil pointedly asked why the committee needs testimony to learn whether to propose legislation that already exists. She ultimately, however, agreed that the subpoena serves a legislative purpose.
Her decision will be reviewed by U.S. Circuit Judges Jose Cabranes, a Bill Clinton appointee; Joseph Bianco, a Trump appointee and Sarah A. L. Merriam, a Joe Biden appointee.
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