WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, on Thursday issued a subpoena to Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor who led the Manhattan district attorney's investigation of Donald Trump.
The subpoena, seeking Pomerantz's appearance before the committee for a deposition, is part of an investigation by Trump's allies in Congress into the conduct of the probe that resulted in the first-ever criminal charges brought against a former U.S. president.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday accused Trump of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election to keep women quiet about sexual encounters they said they had with him. Many Republicans have called the charges politically motivated.
Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024, pleaded not guilty and denies having affairs with the women: porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Bragg told reporters Tuesday the charges were part of the office's history of "vigorously enforcing white collar crime."
On Thursday, a spokesperson for Bragg said House Republicans were trying to undermine the case with "an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation" which would not "deter us from our duty to uphold the law." The statement said the probe was intruding on New York's sovereignty.
Pomerantz, who left the office early last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He previously led a sprawling probe into Trump's business practices but he resigned shortly after Bragg, a Democrat, took office in 2022 and declined to pursue an indictment of Trump based on that probe.
Earlier this year, Pomerantz published a book criticizing Bragg's decision not to pursue charges. He also said prosecutors had previously examined potential charges against Trump over the hush money payments, but were concerned they would rest on a novel legal theory that may not hold up in court.
"Pomerantz's public statements about the investigation strongly suggest that Bragg's prosecution of President Trump is politically motivated," Jordan said in a statement on Thursday.
Jordan said Pomerantz has previously declined to cooperate with the committee, which is investigating the conduct of the probe, which resulted in the first-ever criminal charges against a former or sitting U.S. president.
Bragg has also said Pomerantz's case was not ready.