OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg responded on Thursday to a potential indictment and arrest of former President Donald Trump. Bragg issued a vague statement that did not actually provide any information about what might happen next.
Bragg sent a letter to members of the House Judiciary Committee after they sent their own letter “demanding communications, documents, and testimony relating to Bragg’s unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority and the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump.”
In his letter, the Manhattan DA said his office will “publicly state the conclusion of our investigation—whether we conduct our work without bringing charges, or move forward with an indictment.”
Bragg also addressed the letter the House Judiciary Committee previously sent to his office and said, “Your letter dated March 20, 2023, (the ‘Letter’), in contrast, is an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution. The letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for a congressional inquiry.”
The Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence in the criminal investigation into Trump has taken many turns in the last week.
The case involves Trump’s alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, allegedly to keep Daniels quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.
A clearly frustrated Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took to Twitter earlier this week to lambast Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and call for his incarceration following news that he’s about to indict one of New York’s most famous and successful sons: Donald Trump.
“A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail,” Paul noted in his tweet.
Paul also went on to post several quotes from constitutional expert and Georgetown University law school professor Jonathan Turley made during an interview with Fox News regarding Bragg’s case.
“Well, there’s a host of legal principles designed to keep this from happening— that you’re taking something that has a statute of limitations of two years and trying to bring it back to life seven years later,” Turley told host Sandra Smith.
He also said “you have the Manhattan D.A. trying to effectively litigate a federal crime that the federal government didn’t feel needed to be litigated, didn’t bring to court….combine that with the timing here,” going on to add: “We’re in the middle of a presidential election, and you have Bragg going to these extraordinary steps to try to prosecute Donald Trump.”
A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 21, 2023
.@JonathanTurley on the NY DA’s political prosecution of Trump:
“Well, there's a host of legal principles designed to keep this from happening— that you're taking something that has a statute of limitations of two years and trying to bring it back to life seven years later.”
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2023
“We're in the middle of a presidential election, and you have Bragg going to these extraordinary steps to try to prosecute Donald Trump.”
MUST watch interview:https://t.co/nbjTRsPhAa
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2023
Several prominent Republicans have rallied to support the former president as he faces the possibility of being indicted for his involvement in the hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, for instance, said that Bragg “has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America.”
Former Trump UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has also declared her bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, told Fox News: “I think what we know is, when you get into political prosecutions like this, it’s more about revenge than it is about justice.”
And former Vice President Mike Pence, who has had a falling out with his former running mate, told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl that he believes Bragg’s investigation is “politically motivated” and “not what the American people want to see.” Pence is considering a 2024 bid, according to reports.
Another potential rival to Trump, who was the first to formally declare his candidacy in November, also remarked on the case.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do know this: the Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at an event in his state earlier this week. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just, I can’t speak to that.”
