Alvin Bragg using 'very rare' maneuver to invalidate Jim Jordan’s subpoena: legal analyst

Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is firing back at House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) with a lawsuit accusing him of improper interference in the prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

On CNN Tuesday, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig outlined the unusual legal situation — and how Bragg is moving forward.

"Obviously we should note ... that you were former colleague of D.A. Bragg," said anchor Poppy Harlow. "That team prosecuting Trump. It's, rare, right to see this sort of back-and-forth in this way. Between, you know, a leading member of Congress out of the Judiciary Committee and the D.A. prosecuting the former president."

"Very rare," said Honig. "This is what happens when the law meets politics, and now we are in this really unique scenario that we have not seen anything quite like before. All of this swirls around last week's indictment by the Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg of Donald Trump over the documentation around hush money payments made by Donald Trump before the 2016 election to Stormy Daniels. Of course, this was the first ever indictment of a president or a former president."

"Now, people started to take sides pretty early here," Honig continued. "For example, Representative Jim Jordan, the new House Judiciary Chairman, wrote a letter to Alvin Bragg in which he said, quote, 'This is an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority, and he demanded information from Bragg around the case. I want you to pay attention to the date of that letter from Jim Jordan, March 20th. That is before the indictment was unsealed. That is before the indictment was even voted."

"Before we knew what the charges were," Harlow agreed. "Before the grand jury had it."

"There was no indictment," said Honig. "Did not exist. Now, Alvin Bragg responded to Jim Jordan and said, no thanks, Congress, this is not for you. Jim Jordan did not take well to that response. And so what Jim Jordan has now done is request information and testimony from Alvin Bragg, the D.A., from Matthew Colangelo, one of the aides who's on the team prosecuting Trump, and then Jim Jordan served a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee on Mark Pomerantz, a former A.D.A who was working on this case but resigned about a year ago."

"Now, what Alvin Bragg has done with this lawsuit is he's gone into federal court, and he's asked the judge to do two things," added Honig. "One, quash, as we say, meaning block the subpoena to Mark Pomerantz, and two, if they should subpoena Alvin Bragg or anyone else? Bragg says, I want a ruling right now that that kind of subpoena is invalid and will not be enforced."