The lede in this Axios report from Saturday afternoon might’ve seemed outlandish, but it was an accurate summary of a curious development on Capitol Hill.
Top House Republicans said in a letter Saturday that they’re considering legislation to “protect” current and former presidents from “politically motivated prosecutions” in response to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into former President Trump.
Let’s briefly review how we arrived at this moment, because the circumstances — which continue to unfold fairly quickly — have become increasingly bizarre.
It was just nine days ago when Donald Trump predicted his looming arrest in New York, based on weird assumptions that had no real basis in fact. The former president’s guess, we now know, turned out to wrong.
Nevertheless, within hours of Trump’s declaration, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy didn’t just voice his support for the former president, the California Republican also directed House committee chairs to investigate the work of the Manhattan district attorney’s office. A week ago this morning, they followed those directions: Three powerful GOP chairs — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin — wrote to Bragg, seeking, among other things, his congressional testimony.
It was a difficult move to defend. The local prosecutor hadn’t filed charges; there was no evidence of the district attorney engaging in any wrongdoing; no one on Capitol Hill has any idea whether Bragg has a strong case against Trump or not, and the grand jury proceedings remained underway. There was simply no sensible justification for congressional leaders interfering with the case. Jordan, Comer, and Steil did it anyway. (They also sought information from former prosecutors who worked with Bragg.)
The general counsel for the Manhattan DA’s office wrote…
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