Manhattan DA sues Rep. Jordan over Trump indictment inquiry

Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, left, speaks during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 9, 2023, in Washington. House Republicans on Thursday, April 6, subpoenaed one of the former Manhattan prosecutors who had been leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before quitting last year in a clash over the direction of the probe. Jordan ordered Mark Pomerantz to testify before the committee by April 30. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sued Rep. Jim Jordan on Tuesday, an extraordinary move as he seeks to halt a House Judiciary Committee inquiry that the prosecutor contends is a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the committee’s Republican chair, has issued or plans to issue as part of an investigation of Bragg’s handling of the case, the first criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president.

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee who previously served as a federal bankruptcy court judge, declined Tuesday to take immediate action on the lawsuit. She scheduled an initial hearing for April 19 in Manhattan, the day before the committee plans to question, under subpoena, a top former prosecutor who was involved in the Trump probe.