It was almost 15 months ago when the House Judiciary Committee became chairman Jim Jordan thought it would be a good idea to interfere with an ongoing local criminal investigation. Amid reports, Manhattan district attorney says Alvin Bragg Donald Trump could indict, the Ohio Republican joined two other GOP committee chairmen in asking Bragg to testify before Congress.
In the weeks and months that followed, Jordan continued to push forward, demanding documents and communications from the local prosecutor’s office, seemingly indifferent to the fact that there was an ongoing case, and the U.S. House of Representatives arguably has no jurisdiction over the office of a prosecutor. .
The Ohioan nevertheless continued to send Bragg correspondence and requests for information, each time being rebuffed by the prosecutor, who reminded Jordan that the Judiciary Committee could not intervene in an ongoing case. At one point last year, Bragg wrote to the right-wing congressman: “We urge you to abandon these inflammatory charges, withdraw your request for information, and allow the criminal trial to proceed without unlawful political interference.”
As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim recently noted, the day after a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies, Jordan decided to try again, appointing Bragg and Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel in the officer’s office of justice, called to testify in court. The so-called “armament committee” of the Republicans on June 13. According to the chairman’s reasoning, prosecutors could not say no because the case was no longer ongoing.
It turned out that his assumptions were not entirely correct. The New York Times reported this weekend:
In other words, the prosecutor will apparently answer Jordan’s questions once the case is over — and the case will be over after the former president is convicted.
Bragg’s letter to the Republican lawmaker added that he is looking for some further clarification about the scope of the testimony, and it is up to Jordan to respond.
All told, the final exchange between the two men opens the door to the congressman actually getting what he wants: Bragg, in a committee room on Capitol Hill, in a chair, on camera, berated by Republicans with conspiracy theories. Apparently it won’t happen this weekbut it seems likely that this will happen sometime in the summer.
That’s not to say the hearing will go well for Trump’s allies in Congress — Bragg will almost certainly explain why their conspiracy theories aren’t true — but Jordan and his cohorts are living in hope.
They also live in fear: Conservative media figures have told Jordan that they expect him to pursue this line of inquiry against Trump’s accuser, even if it serves no purpose, and even if it accomplishes nothing. Steve Bannon — who has said Bragg “should and will be jailed” for his role in the hush money case — has been particularly aggressive in his efforts to bully the congressman into submission.
Apparently the pressure campaign has the intended effect.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
