LAST-DITCH EFFORT

Judge Denies Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s Request to Block GOP Subpoena

The Trump-appointed judge said Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in Bragg’s office, must appear before the House Judiciary Committee for a deposition on Thursday.

A federal judge has denied Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s attempt to block House Republicans from questioning a former prosecutor about the DA office’s investigation of former president Donald Trump. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, said Mark Pomerantz, who left the DA’s office last year and wrote a book on the Trump probe, must appear before the House Judiciary Committee for a deposition. “The subpoena was issued with a ‘valid legislative purpose’ in connection with the ‘broad’ and ‘indispensable’ congressional power to ‘conduct investigations,’” Vyskocil wrote, adding that it was beyond his power as a judge to tell Congress how to do that job. Bragg’s counsel filed a notice of appeal moments after Vyskocil’s ruling was issued on Wednesday evening; shortly after, Pomerantz filed his own notice of appeal. Should the appeals fail, the committee will question Pomerantz on Thursday as part of Republicans’ full-court press against Bragg as he pursues a felony case against Trump.