Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

GOP blocked in subpoena of lawyer who used to helm Trump probe

The House Judiciary Committee had planned on questioning former special assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz early Thursday, but an appeals court entered an emergency stay.

MANHATTAN (CN) — The Second Circuit entered a late-night reprieve Wednesday for the former assistant district attorney facing a congressional subpoena in the wake of former President Donald Trump's criminal indictment.

Absent the emergency stay from U.S. Circuit Judge Beth Robinson, Mark Pomerantz was due to appear Thursday morning before the House Judiciary Committee. Representative Jim Jordan, who chairs that panel considers the testimony of the former Mafia prosecutor essential as it investigates the unprecedented charges that Trump faces in Manhattan .

Pomerantz had previously led the probe that culminated with the grand jury indictment late last month, but he quit the office in early 2022 when Alvin Bragg took over the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney previously held by Cyrus Vance Jr.

At Bragg's instruction, Pomerantz has cited the ongoing criminal investigation as a reason not to testify before the committee.

The prosecutor sued last week to block Pomerantz's subpoena, but a Trump-appointed federal judge denied Bragg's request for a temporary restraining order on Wednesday afternoon.

Hours later, Robinson called for the matter to go before the "the first available panel" of the Second Circuit. Arguments for the motion are now scheduled for Tuesday, April 25.

“It is herby ordered that an administrative stay of the return date of the subpoena is granted so that a three-judge panel may consider the motion seeking a stay pending appeal of the district court’s order,” the 2-page order from the Biden appointee states. “This order reflects no judgment regarding the merits of the parties’ respective positions.”

Jordan faces a deadline of 3 p.m. Friday to deliver his response to Bragg's motion for stay pending appeal.

In district court on Wednesday, attorneys for Ohio Republican and his committee argued that Congress had a "valid legislative purpose" in questioning Pomerantz because the office of the Manhattan prosecutor gets some federal funding.

Jordan told Pomerantz in a letter accompanying the subpoena that his committee may consider “potential legislative reforms that would, if enacted, insulate current and former Presidents from such politically motivated state and local prosecutions.”

U.S. District Judge Mary Vyskocil ruled Wednesday afternoon that it would not impede prosecutors' work if the House questions Pomerantz, calling the lawyer "a private citizen and public commentator at the time Bragg indicted Trump."

When Pomerantz stepped away from the prosecutor's office in early 2022, the Trump probe appeared to be winding down. Pomerantz would go on in media appearances, and in his book “People vs Donald Trump: an Inside Account,” to describe the prosecution as a “zombie case” that returned from the dead after investigators had moved on.

At Wednesday's hearing, Judge Vyskocil chided parties for political rhetoric “on both sides” surrounding the case.

“By bringing this action, Bragg is engaging in precisely the type of political theater he claims to fear,” she wrote in her 25-page opinion.

"No one is above the law," Vyskocil continued, wryly appropriating language often used in court cases that don't go Trump's way.

Follow @jruss_jruss
Categories / Appeals, Government, Law, Politics

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...