District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, who was appointed by Donald Trump, ruled Wednesday that former prosecutor and adviser to the Manhattan District Attorney's office, Mark Pomerantz, must appear for a deposition in the House Judiciary Committee.
“The subpoena was issued with a ‘valid legislative purpose’ in connection with the ‘broad’ and ‘indispensable’ congressional power to ‘conduct investigations.’ It is not the role of the federal judiciary to dictate what legislation Congress may consider or how it should conduct its deliberations in that connection. Mr. Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition. No one is above the law,” Vyskocil wrote in the opinion.
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is fighting with Jordan over what he says is an intrusion by the federal government in a jurisdiction in which it has no oversight.
Bragg intends to ask the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay of Vyskocil's decision, they said in a previous statement.
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At issue was whether or not the GOP could subpoena a former prosecutor from the D.A.'s office to answer questions about a case that led to Donald Trump's indictment, a CNN analysis explained.
“There’s politics going on on both sides, let’s be honest about that,” Vyskocil claimed during the hearing. The claim echos comment from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who told reporters, including Raw Story, on Tuesday, that the Bragg charges are "purely political."
Vyskocil began with one of Jordan's claims, that the D.A. office accepts federal dollars and as such should be accountable to the federal government. A lawyer for the D.A.'s office explained that the office accepted $5,000 for the Trump case that was decided in December. The case before the grand jury now doesn't involve any federal dollars.
“The cases tell me, if I find a valid legislative purpose, I am not allowed to look at the motivations on either side,” Vyskocil said. “It’s not my place under all the case law to tell them what and how they ought to conduct their inquiry.”
“We are looking into whether or not there is a problem with politically motivated prosecutions of former presidents and whether the motivated prosecutions of former presidents is using federal funds,” Judiciary Committee lawyer Matthew Berry told the judge.
Berry then said that because it cites things that could escalate to federal charges they should also oversee it. "Could" however, doesn't mean currently. Until it does involve federal courage, the Judiciary Committee is making the case that they shouldn't have any oversight until federal charges are involved.
“Mr. Pomerantz is free to assert privilege if he shows up tomorrow with respect to particular questions, then the committee can ask questions to elicit the basis of privilege and they can adjudicate them on a question-by-question basis,” the committee attorney said.
Pomerantz hasn't been involved in any of the pieces of the investigation for the past year and doesn't likely have knowledge of the grand jury, which is secret.
