The Manhattan district attorney should be more worried about rampant local crime than trying to nail Donald Trump in a “political stunt,’’ the chairman of the House Oversight Committee said Sunday.
“We just want the government out of our elections,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” We don’t believe tax dollars should be spent for this.
“We believe this is a political stunt by Mr. Bragg,” Comer said, referring to DA Alvin Bragg and the grand jury he convened to look into alleged business-reporting and campaign-finance fraud involving Trump and a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“When you look at what we believe the role of the Manhattan DA should be, [it] is to fight crime. I mean, that’s one of the biggest issues in New York. We saw that in the midterm elections last November,” Comer said.
“And we believe that our tax dollars — and that’s where I come in with the House Oversight — we believe tax dollars would be better spent prosecuting local criminals. That’s what a DA is supposed to do,” he said.
CNN host Jake Tapper pushed back, “Are you arguing that people who commit business crimes are not committing crimes?”
Comer said, “Well, is this a business crime?
“We’re talking about a federal-election crime here, Jake. This is a federal election crime. The Manhattan DA does not write federal electoral law,” he said.
Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had scolded Bragg in a letter Saturday in response to the Manhattan prosecutor telling them to butt out of his hush-money investigation into Trump.
But Tapper quoted a number of Republican senators who raised concerns about their House colleagues inserting themselves in a local investigation.
Tapper asked Comer if he and Jordan are attempting to interfere in a case involving a “private citizen allegedly accused of committing a crime.”
Comer replied, “It’s not a sincere argument to say it’s a local investigation when you’re investigating a presidential candidate and a former president of the United States.
“Again, we believe that this should be done on the federal level,” he said. “We don’t believe this is a good use of tax dollars.”
Comer said that if Bragg testifies to Congress about the reasoning for his investigation and convinces them that they shouldn’t get involved, “then we will back off.
“But we’re sick and tired of meddling in federal elections. And I don’t believe that Bragg would be doing this if Donald Trump were not running for president, and that’s something that we would like to ask Mr. Bragg as well,” Comer said.
Tapper said, “As of right now, of course, Trump has not been charged with anything.
“What do you say to Bragg, who says you’re trying to stop a charge from happening even before you know of any evidence?”
Comer said, “The problem with that is, this is not a local investigation.
“This is a federal investigation. He’s investigating a presidential candidate, not to mention former president of the United States, for a federal election crime.
“That has no business being litigated in a local district attorney’s office.”
Tapper said Bragg is looking into violations of state crimes.
Comer responded, “Even at that, look, let’s just be honest here.
“I mean, this is about politics. This is a presidential candidate.”
Bragg is investigating a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen made the payment to Daniels to gain her silence about a sexual affair she alleges she had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump has denied both being involved in the payment and the affair.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 for making the payment and was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Trump, who last weekend said on Truth Social that he would be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury a few days later, has continued to lash out at Bragg, calling him “POLITICAL SCUM” and posting an image of himself holding a baseball bat next to an image of the DA.
The image ended up on The Post’s front page Friday.
