The House Judiciary Committee, led by Republicans, announced that it would conduct a hearing in Manhattan to examine what it referred to as the “pro-crime” policies of the borough’s district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, a Democrat, NYT times reports.
President. Trump is facing felony charges stemming from a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Representative Andy Biggs, a committee member, expressed via Twitter that if DA Bragg can use resources to indict President Trump, he should be able to address the rising crime rates in NYC.
Bragg’s office responded promptly, saying that the House GOP was coming to the safest big city in America for a political stunt and dismissing the premise of the hearing that Manhattan is experiencing a surging crime wave. The office claimed that data released by the Police Department showed a decline in murders, shootings, burglaries, and robberies through April 2 compared to the same period last year.
Furthermore, the spokesperson for Bragg’s office claimed that New York City had one of the lowest murder rates of major cities in the United States during Bragg’s first year in office.
The Judiciary Committee hearing, entitled “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,” is scheduled for next Monday at a federal office building in Lower Manhattan. The announcement did not list any of the witnesses expected to testify. Some committee Democrats plan to attend the hearing to counter the claims about DA Bragg.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, the panel’s top Democrat, criticized Representative Jim Jordan, the chairman, for calling a local prosecutor’s performance into question at the same time that Mr. Jordan is suggesting that House Republicans might use their budget powers to influence federal law enforcement agencies.
Jordan, Biggs, and other House members have rallied around the former president since it became clear that he was likely to be charged in the hush-money matter as a result of the inquiry by Bragg’s office. Before the charges became public, Jordan and the Republican leaders of two other House committees sent a letter to Bragg demanding that he provide them with communications, documents, and testimony about his investigation into Trump. The House speaker, Representative Kevin McCarthy, called for investigations into whether federal funds were being used for “politically motivated prosecutions.”
Bragg rejected the demands by the committee chairmen forcefully, with his general counsel calling them “an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty.” Jordan has continued to try to obtain documents and testimony from Bragg’s office and has called Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel in the district attorney’s office, to testify.
