The Daily Fuckup

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg went to federal court on April 11, 2023, to try to stop House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan from enforcing a subpoena issued six days earlier to former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz. Bragg’s complaint says the demand is aimed at an active criminal case in New York and has no legitimate legislative purpose as applied to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The subpoena sought Pomerantz’s testimony about Bragg’s handling of the Trump investigation. Pomerantz had served in the district attorney’s office as a pro bono special assistant district attorney before resigning in February 2022. Jordan’s subpoena letter said the committee was examining whether Congress should act to curb politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials.

Bragg’s filing asks the court to bar enforcement of the subpoena and prevent Pomerantz from being forced to comply. The lawsuit does not decide the dispute itself; it asks a judge to rule that the committee’s demand cannot be used to reach into a live prosecution. As of the April 11 filing, the court had not yet ruled on Bragg’s claims.

The case pushed an already heated fight over the Trump investigation into a new courtroom battle over congressional power. The immediate question before the judge was narrow: whether a House committee can compel testimony from a former prosecutor about an investigation that is still in motion, or whether that crosses the line into interference with an ongoing state case.