The standoff between Jim Jordan and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, explained

House Republicans are going after the DA’s work on Trump’s indictment. Bragg is fighting back.

This week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a lawsuit against House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan in an effort to block Republicans’ demands that witnesses testify before Congress and produce documents related to the indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Trump’s indictment sparked widespread condemnation by Republicans, and the back-and-forth between Jordan and Bragg highlights how aggressively the GOP has defended the former president against an effort it claims is politically driven. The House investigation, ultimately, is a means to find some evidence that the indictment is a political attack, to defuse its severity, and to distract voters from the charges.

Bragg’s lawsuit follows ongoing attacks Republicans have made on this case. In early April, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money that was paid to former porn performer Stormy Daniels.

Ahead of the indictment, Jordan and two other Republican committee chairs sent Bragg a letter requesting his testimony and demanding documents tied to the Trump investigation. Bragg’s office responded to that letter defending his work, and argued at the time that there was no place for federal lawmakers to interfere in a New York state criminal case.

Since the indictment came down, Jordan has intensified his investigation into Bragg’s case against Trump, and issued a subpoena to Mark Pomerantz, a former senior prosecutor who worked in the DA’s office and who has expressed disagreement about how some aspects of the case were handled. The GOP alleges that Pomerantz declined to voluntarily participate, following guidance from the New York DA’s office not to do so.

Bragg’s lawsuit aims to counter what he describes as a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” his office and its charges against the former president. Specifically, the lawsuit seeks to stymie the subpoena for Pomerantz, and to block Republicans from requiring testimony from other witnesses in the DA’s office. Jordan has responded to the lawsuit via tweet, describing it as an attempt to “block congressional oversight.”

A judge has not granted Bragg’s request to block this subpoena, but one could still do so. The court is set to hold a hearing on the suit on April 19.

House Republicans are targeting Bragg as they try to defend Trump

House Republicans’ attacks on Bragg go beyond his spat with Jordan. GOP lawmakers from the speaker to rank-and-file members have aggressively gone after the Manhattan DA as they’ve mounted a vocal defense of Trump.

“Alvin Bragg has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy previously said in a tweet. “The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”

Another attack that Republicans have used is pointing out that Bragg used federal funds to conduct his investigation. Bragg’s office has responded by noting that it’s used about $5,000 in federal dollars in order to conduct investigations into Trump and his companies, including litigation over access to his tax returns. These funds come from federal forfeiture funds the DA’s office helped collect, and not federal grant programs, Bragg’s office said.

Jordan’s investigation and demands for testimony and documents are a major part of the push to continue going after Bragg. By calling Bragg’s motivations and the legitimacy of his case into question, Republicans hope to defuse — or at least distract from — the charges against Trump. In doing so, they’re also showing their supporters how hard they’re advocating for the former president, who maintains a strong grip on the GOP base, whether or not they actually obtain the testimony and documents they’ve requested.

As Kaleigh Rogers has written for FiveThirtyEight, House Republicans’ demands for information in an active criminal investigation are unprecedented, and convincing a court to enforce a subpoena regarding an active criminal case is poised to be tough.

Still, the House GOP has made it clear it plans to try. And it is only expanding its attacks on the DA. Next week, Jordan intends to hold a field hearing in New York City focused on crime in the city that once again goes after Bragg.