House Republicans Will Defend Trump By Showing Their Whole Asses In New York

PA. THET. IC.

Republicans believe in states' rights. These stalwart conservatives are deeply committed to the principle of local control. They just want the federal government to get out of the way and let states do their thing, and that's why they're taking a field trip to New York to lecture a local elected official on how to do his job properly.

“Alvin Bragg’s radical pro-crime, anti-victim policies have led to an increase in violent crime in New York City. Next week, the Judiciary Committee will examine these policies during a field hearing in Manhattan.”

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Rep. Jim Jordan) 1681134736 

Just kidding! Republicans care about nothing but power. They know that their most fervent supporters are laboring under a fanatical, cultlike devotion to Donald Trump, and so they're trying to intimidate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the first prosecutor to bring an indictment of the former president.

The fucktussle started on March 20, before the charges had even dropped, when the Republicans on the House Judiciary, Oversight, and Administration Committees sent Bragg a letter telling him his (unseen) case against Trump was crap. Over the next three weeks, they sparred back and forth with the DA's office in a series of nastygrams wherein Bragg pointed out that Congress could have no jurisdiction over his office, and they in turn accused him of allowing violent crime to run rampant in New York, instead seeking to wage political prosecutions of poor, innocent, Republican presidential candidates.

And on at least one criticism, they may have a point — albeit a minor one. Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of making a false business record under the theory that his "intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof." When asked what the other crime was, Bragg responded that he had no obligation to say at the time of charging, and then waved his hands generally in the direction of federal and state election crimes. Rep. Jordan et al. insist that federal election laws preempt the state using them as a basis for state prosecution, and they may well be right.

The suggestion that Bragg is exceeding his authority was severely undercut, however, by the Committees' claim that they have any oversight power over local law enforcement. As Bragg's office pointed out in one of its responses, that violates both the Tenth Amendment, which reserves to the states any "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution," and multiple Supreme Court precedents, most famously the 1971  Younger v. Harris    decision, in which the court held that the federal government should refrain from interfering with state prosecutions. (If you ever hear about the  Younger   abstention doctrine , that's what they're talking about.) This would also apply to the three dinguses' claims that DA Bragg's request for a gag order in the Trump prosecution would be "unconstitutional."

In plain English, it takes balls to lecture a local prosecutor about staying in his lane, when you're so far outside your own neighborhood. But Jim Jordan is all balls and no brains, so he's going one further by holding a hearing in New York City for Bragg's supposed "victims" next week. We are, after all, talking about a guy who just subpoenaed former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who famously resigned because Bragg was too reluctant to charge Trump, in an effort to prove that Bragg is hellbent on getting Trump. And lest we forget, Jordan himself defied a subpoena from the House January 6 Select Committee during the last Congress.

Now, before you go looking, not a single Republican on the Judiciary Committee hails from the Empire State, although Democratic Ranking Member Jerry Nadler is from New York. Nonetheless, these goobers are going to be at the Javits Federal Building on Monday at 9 a.m. to discuss the non-existent crime wave in the Big Apple.

For his part, Bragg has had just about enough of this shit.

“https: //t.co/YNq0I2bjas”

— Alvin Bragg (@Alvin Bragg) 1681153176 

"Don't be fooled, the House GOP is coming to the safest big city in America for a political stunt. This hearing won't engage in actual efforts to increase public safety, such as supporting national gun legislation and shutting down the iron pipeline," he tweeted, going on to point out that crime has actually declined in New York under his tenure. He also notes that if Jordan really cared about crime victims, he could start in his own back yard.

In D.A. Bragg's first year in office, New York City had one of the lowest murder rates of major cities in the United States (5.2) — nearly three times lower than Columbus, Ohio (15.4). If Chairman Jordan truly cared about public safety, he could take a short drive to Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron, or Toledo in his home state, instead of using taxpayer dollars to travel hundreds of miles out of his way.

Naturally Jordan glued on his pasties and shook his moneymaker for Sean Hannity and the howler monkeys last night. Gotta feed that grift machine every day, baby.

Catch Liz Dye on Opening Arguments podcast.

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