Longtime Manhattan Rep. Jerrold Nadler is calling Monday's U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing in Manhattan an attempt to obstruct justice in the wake of District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
“I wouldn't have dreamed of holding a hearing on an ongoing court proceeding,” said Nadler, who was formerly the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and is now its ranking member, in an interview on Thursday. “It’s an attack on our system of justice.”
Republicans announced the hearing earlier this week to scrutinize what they claim are “pro-crime, anti-victim” policies of the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is prosecuting Trump. They assert Bragg’s policy of no longer prosecuting certain low-level offenses has led to an increase in violent crime, despite NYPD data that shows a drop in murders, shootings and robberies in Manhattan.
I wouldn't have dreamed of holding a hearing on an ongoing court proceeding. It’s an attack on our system of justice.
This is the second field hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee under Jordan’s leadership. It will take place at the Javits Federal Building in Lower Manhattan, just steps from the courthouse where Trump is being prosecuted. The first one was in Yuma, Arizona, and focused on the so-called “Biden border crisis.” There were no field hearings when Nadler was chair.
Nadler, the committee's ranking Democrat, and his colleagues want to use the hearing to show how congressional Republican allies of the former president are attempting to disrupt a state-level criminal case. He’s said they will also debunk misinformation about crime rates in New York City, while calling out Republicans for their refusal to take any action on gun control.
The House Judiciary Committee is led by Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and ardent defender of Trump. Nadler, who led the first impeachment trial against Trump, echoed a statement Bragg’s office issued on Monday noting that compared to Manhattan, murder rates are higher in cities in Jordan’s home state of Ohio, including Columbus.
Among the committee’s two-dozen other GOP members, there are several staunch supporters of Trump, including Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Biggs introduced a bill in the House on Thursday that seeks to defund the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Massie made headlines last month when he and New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman engaged in a shouting match in the halls of the U.S. Capitol over gun violence. Bowman, a former teacher, called Republicans “cowards” for blocking legislation to ban assault weapons. Massie suggested teachers should be armed.
The exchange, which was captured on video that went viral, came just two days after three children and three adults were killed in a mass shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Who are they to talk about crime rates when they're standing in the way of gun control legislation?” Nadler said of Monday’s hearing. “They’re total hypocrites.”
Advocates for gun control are also expected to show up outside the hearing on Monday to call out Republicans for stymieing any meaningful gun control measures.
“The same politicians who are hell-bent on defunding ATF and flooding our streets with guns now have the audacity to lecture New York City about law and order,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group. “When it comes to gun violence, the American people are looking for leaders who will pass laws and keep them safe, not pander to the far-right fringe.”
The field hearing comes nearly two weeks after Trump was forced to appear in Manhattan State Supreme Court for an arraignment on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election by allegedly making hush-money payments to conceal an affair with an adult film star.
Even before he was officially charged, House Republicans sent a letter in March to Bragg’s office demanding access to documents and communications that were part of that ongoing criminal investigation. Bragg’s office responded with its own letter accusing House Republicans of operating beyond their congressional jurisdiction by attempting to interfere with a state-level prosecution.
His letter also noted the timing of the congressional request, which came only after Trump said on social media that he would be arrested that Tuesday, “and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene.”
Earlier this week, Bragg filed a lawsuit against Jordan in federal court in Manhattan to block the committee’s subpoena of a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, who had been leading the Trump investigation and left the DA’s office last year. He left the office last year reportedly out of frustration over how the office was handling the case. He has since written a memoir called, “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account.”
Manhattan and Brooklyn Rep. Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who represented Democrats in the impeachment case against Trump, and whose district includes the state and federal courthouses along with the Javits Federal Building said the actions of Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee are a “gross abuse of the power of the House of Representatives.”
“If the district attorney can show that there was direct coordination between Donald Trump or Donald Trump's legal team and the Judiciary Committee or the other committees, then it completely undermines their after-the-fact argument that they're looking into the use of federal funds in a state level prosecution,” Goldman told Gothamist on Tuesday, shortly after Bragg’s lawsuit was announced. “And this lawsuit is a mechanism through which they should be able to obtain that information.”
Nadler said that both Reps. Goldman and Adriano Espaillat were seeking waivers to ask questions during Monday’s field hearing. Representatives who are not members of the committee need permission from the chair to participate in the hearing. Nadler said his staff was waiting for a response from Jordan’s office.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from the North Country who is also not a member of the committee, is expected to participate.
