By Karen Freifeld
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Thursday said Donald Trump created a false expectation of his arrest and led Republicans in Congress to interfere with the office’s probe of the former president.
“Your letter … is an unprecedent inquiry into a pending local prosecution. The letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office wrote in the letter to three Republicans in the House of Representatives.
A grand jury convened by Bragg in January began hearing evidence about Trump’s role in a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election that he ended up winning. Daniels, a well-known adult film actress and director whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received the money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump has maintained his innocence and said the investigation was politically motivated.
The letter from Bragg’s office said the three House committee chairmen had sought non-public information about a pending criminal investigation, which is confidential under state law.
“The letter’s requests are an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty,” the Manhattan district attorney’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight panel Chairman James Comer and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Tim Ahmann)
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