By Aaron Miller-
The Manhattan district attorney assessing an indictment against Donald Trump, rejected a request from House Republicans for testimony and documents.
On Monday, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky and Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairmen of the House judiciary, oversight and administration committees, requested the testimony and documents related to the hush-money case involving Stormy Daniels.
On Wednesday, Jordan sent additional letters to two former prosecutors who resigned from the district attorney’s office demanding their testimony related to Bragg’s expected action on Trump.
“You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Bragg, arguing that the action would “erode confidence in the even handed application of justice” and interfere in the upcoming election.
It comes on a day when a rightwing extremist who was convicted on charges related to breaching the Capitol on January 6 and directing the mob towards Nancy Pelosi has been sentenced to three years in prison, NBC News reports.
Federal prosecutors argued that Riley Williams “led an army” of rioters to Pelosi’s office after they breached the Capitol, and stood by as one stole a laptop the House speaker used for her Zoom meetings. In delivering her sentence, federal judge Amy Berman said what Williams did was “utterly reprehensible”.
Williams’ federal public defender Lori Ulrich said that while Williams might have “distasteful” beliefs, she was a young woman equipped with only a “cell phone and her fuzzy zebra bag” who even posted at one point that she was “STORMING THE WHITE HOUSE” when she was, in fact, in the legislative branch. Williams, her defense argued, “wanted to be somebody.”
At the hearing ahead of her sentencing, Williams said she is embarrassed watching the actions of the “young and stupid girl” she now sees in all of those videos. She said she is now “a responsible woman” and had been “addicted to the internet since before I can remember.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Dalke argued that Williams was not some “impulsive Gen-Z gadfly” or “the Forrest Gump of January 6.” Williams “participated in domestic terrorism, plain and simple.” Dalke said.
Williams was ultimately convicted on six counts: felony civil disorder, resisting and impeding certain officers, and four misdemeanor charges. The jury deadlocked on a count of obstruction of an official proceeding as well as on the question of whether Williams aided and abetted the theft of Pelosi’s laptop.
Jackson had ordered Williams remanded after the verdict, saying she had “no confidence whatsoever” that Williams had respect for the rule of law.
Bragg’s office called the allegations that potential prosecution would be politically motivated “unfounded,” but agreed to meet with the lawmakers to understand whether there was “any legitimate legislative purpose” in the request.
The letter to Bragg came after a number of prominent Republicans rushed to Trump’s aid since he said in a social media post over the weekend that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday, citing what he called a “highly political” Manhattan’s district attorney’s office while urging his supporters to protest.
An indictment related to the former president’s role in the hush money scheme involving Stormy Daniels, an adult film actor who alleges that she had an extramarital affair with Trump, has been widely anticipated. But the timing remains unclear
The news comes on the same day rightwing extremist who was convicted on charges related to breaching the Capitol on January 6 and directing the mob towards Nancy Pelosi was sentenced to three years in prison, NBC News reports.
Federal prosecutors argued that Riley Williams “led an army” of rioters to Pelosi’s office after they breached the Capitol, and stood by as one stole a laptop the House speaker used for her Zoom meetings. In delivering her sentence, federal judge Amy Berman said what Williams did was “utterly reprehensible”.
Williams’ federal public defender Lori Ulrich said that while Williams might have “distasteful” beliefs, she was a young woman equipped with only a “cell phone and her fuzzy zebra bag” who even posted at one point that she was “STORMING THE WHITE HOUSE” when she was, in fact, in the legislative branch. Williams, her defense argued, “wanted to be somebody.”
At the hearing ahead of her sentencing, Williams said she is embarrassed watching the actions of the “young and stupid girl” she now sees in all of those videos. She said she is now “a responsible woman” and had been “addicted to the internet since before I can remember.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Dalke argued that Williams was not some “impulsive Gen-Z gadfly” or “the Forrest Gump of January 6.” Williams “participated in domestic terrorism, plain and simple.” Dalke said.
Williams was ultimately convicted on six counts: felony civil disorder, resisting and impeding certain officers, and four misdemeanor charges. The jury deadlocked on a count of obstruction of an official proceeding as well as on the question of whether Williams aided and abetted the theft of Pelosi’s laptop.
Jackson had ordered Williams remanded after the verdict, saying she had “no confidence whatsoever” that Williams had respect for the rule of law.