‘Flagrant abuse of power’: Former GOP aide slams House Republicans over plans to probe Manhattan DA
March 20, 2023
A former Republican political operative on Monday slammed three House GOP leaders over plans to investigate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in connection with the prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
Appearing on "The ReidOut with Joy Reid" on MSNBC Monday evening, Kurt Bardella said the case before a Manhattan grand jury is not within the congressional oversight committee’s purview. He described the apparent efforts to interfere with the probe as a “flagrant abuse of power.”
Bardella’s comments followed a letter jointly sent by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Chairman James Comer and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil requesting testimony from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and calling his prosecution of the former president an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.”
“I know how investigations are supposed to work. I know what congressional oversight is supposed to look like. This is not that,” Bardella said.
Bardella alleged nefarious intent behind GOP effort to compel the Manhattan prosecutor to testify before congress.
“This is a deliberate effort, a partisan effort to try and interfere and obstruct an ongoing investigation so that they can acquire information, which they will certainly just turn over to Donald Trump and give him a leg up as he tries to mount a defense against what we expect will be a pending indictment,” Bardella said.
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He noted that in defending the former president, Republicans haven’t even claimed Trump didn’t violate the law.
“They don't have anything to say about the alleged criminal activity that Trump and his campaign engaged in," Bardella said.
"They want to just blow right past that and go back to their greatest hits of rhetoric to make this something that isn't, so they can gaslight all of us, and I just don't think it's going to work.”
Bardella said Republicans who are now “brainstorming ways that they can now act as the legal defense entity for Donald Trump to act as the opposition research department for the Trump legal defense team is an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars and in my opinion, a violation of the oath of office they are supposed to take.”
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