Speaker Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, left, speaks during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, February 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
After being sued in federal court, Rep. Jim Jordan tried to justify his interference in a local criminal investigation as a matter of responsible accounting.
Jordan claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg admitted to using “federal funds” to indict former President Donald Trump.
First, they indict a president for no crime.
Then they sue to block congressional oversight when we ask about the federal funds they say they used to do so.
— Representative Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) April 11, 2023
The only problem is that Bragg actually said the opposite, twice.
A New York grand jury has indicted Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records, alleging the former president repeatedly lied in order to conceal silent payments to Stormy Daniels and their reimbursements.
It will be up to a jury to decide whether Trump committed these crimes — or up to a judge, if the former president prevails in his effort to dismiss the indictment before trial.
On the second part of Jordan’s tweet, the Ohio Republican begins to stray from the facts when he suggests “they say they used” the federal money. It was Alvin Bragg’s office that indicted Trump, and his office has repeatedly insisted that they did not use federal money.
“No expenses incurred in connection with this matter were paid from funds the Bureau receives through federal grant programs,” Bragg General Counsel Leslie B. Dubeck wrote in a letter dated 31 March 2023.
The DA’s office notes in this letter that his office gives the federal government more than it gets from confiscation, estimating that it has poured more than $1 billion into Uncle Sam’s coffers over the past 15 last years.
In stark contrast, according to the DA, Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance, spent about $5,000 on expenses related to investigating Donald J. Trump or the Trump Organization between October 2019 and August 2021, according to a letter from the DA’s office.
Bragg became the DA in 2022, and Vance declined to sue Trump over allegations of silence. In interviews, Vance said it was because the Justice Department told his office to “resign.” The prosecutor’s office said the relatively paltry $5,000 of federal money Vance used mostly went to the Supreme Court battle that bears his and the former president’s name: Vance vs. Trump. Since Vance prevailed, that Supreme Court battle has contributed to lawsuits against the Trump Organization and its former chief executive Allen Weisselberg.
The lawsuit Bragg just filed against Jordan reiterates that there is no connection between federal funding and Trump’s indictment.
“Specifically, Ms Dubeck clarified that ‘[n]o the costs incurred in relation to this case [including the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Trump] were paid from funds the Bureau received through federal grant programs,” the complaint states.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office says it has participated in three grant programs: the Stop Violence Against Women Act program, for which it receives $50,000 a year; the Victim/Witness Assistance Grant Program, for which it receives $583,111.04 per year during its current grant period; and the Justice Assistance Grant, for which he received $204,730 for a period from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2024, according to the letter.
The Jordanian press representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the letter here.
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