Jim Jordan's attempt to 'intimidate' Manhattan DA is a 'gross abuse of congressional power': conservative

27 March 2023

The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson, a Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist, has been arguing that if Republicans were serious about moving on from former President Donald Trump, they would not be aggressively rallying to his defense in response to reports of a possible criminal prosecution by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Trump predicted that on Tuesday, March 21, he would be arrested in connection with the Stormy Daniels hush money case that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Jr. has been investigating. But six days later, on Monday morning, March 27, no such indictment had materialized. And if Trump does face some type of prosecution, it won't necessarily come from Bragg's office; he is also facing probes from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and special counsel Jack Smith as well as Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent Bragg a letter chastising him for his Trump-related probe. But Washington Post opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin, a Never Trumper, argues Jordan was out of line when he presumed to tell the Manhattan prosecutor how to do his job.

"MAGA Republicans, devoid of policy solutions and addicted to performance politics, act as if their House majority invests them with the power to rove the landscape to spot MAGA victims, skewer their enemies and defend their political allies," Rubin complains in a March 27 column. "That's not their job, and, as we are seeing with their attempt to intimidate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his investigation of defeated former president Donald Trump, it's a gross abuse of congressional power. For starters, Congress has no business meddling with any ongoing investigation at any level."

Jordan and other Trump allies in Congress, the columnist emphasizes, are not "a supercharged prosecutorial supervisor."

"In our system of separation of powers," Rubin explains, "the duty to investigate and prosecute rests with the executive branch, either at the state or federal level. Attempts to politicize prosecutions and turn prosecutors into lackeys of right-wing legislatures is a dangerous trend that strikes at the heart of the impartial administration of justice and the rule of law. But it's not only Congress that is seeking to abuse prosecutorial independence."

The Post columnist, who often voted GOP in the past but has been a scathing critic of Trump and the MAGA movement, goes on to note that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis "removed Hillsborough County prosecutor Andrew Warren for, among other reasons, decrying abortion restrictions and bans on gender-affirming care." And she notes that in Georgia, Republicans are hoping to undermine "prosecutorial independence" by proposing a board that would allow them to fire local prosecutors.

MAGA Republicans, Rubin stresses, need to let prosecutors do their jobs — and that includes Judiciary Chairman Jordan.

"It doesn't matter if Jordan and his cohorts actually believe Bragg is abusing his office," Rubin writes. "It doesn’t matter if Bragg actually were using poor judgment in exercise of his prosecutorial discretion. It is not Congress' job to 'fix' these things. Congress is confined to its limited constitutional role. That, too, is what we call the "rule of law.'"

Read Jennifer Rubin's full Washington Post opinion column at this link (subscription required).

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