By Karen Freifeld and Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -New York City prosecutors on Thursday said Donald Trump created a false expectation of his arrest and led fellow Republicans in Congress to interfere with a probe of his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
On Saturday, the former president forecast he would be arrested on Tuesday in the probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
On Monday, three Republican committee chairmen in the U.S. House of Representatives from went on the offensive against District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, accusing him of abusing prosecutorial authority.
As of Wednesday, a grand jury hearing evidence in the Stormy Daniels case had yet to issue an indictment, and on Thursday Bragg’s office sent the committee chairmen a letter seen by Reuters.
The letter said the chairmen’s accusations “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.”
It confirmed that Bragg’s office was “investigating allegations that Donald Trump engaged in violations of New York State penal law.”
If indicted, Trump would be the first U.S. president to face criminal charges in a court. He served as president from 2017-2021 and has mounted a third campaign for the White House while facing legal woes on several fronts.
The grand jury, made up of U.S. citizens residing in Manhattan, convened in January. A former fixer for Trump said he made the payment to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election at Trump’s direction.
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 denied he ever had an affair with Daniels, maintained his innocence and said the investigation was politically motivated.
The response on Thursday from Bragg’s office said the three Republican 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,” said the letter signed by the district attorney’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck. “Congress cannot have any legitimate legislative task relating to the oversight of local prosecutors enforcing state law.”
Trump also faces federal investigations stemming from his handling of government documents after leaving the White House and his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, as well as a state-level probe in Georgia into whether he unlawfully sought to reverse the 2020 election results in that state.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Luc Cohen; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Howard Goller)
