For the better of the week, America has been waiting for Donald Trump to be arrested.
The former President broke the news of his own impending arrest over the weekend, suggesting that Tuesday would be the day.
Now that it’s Thursday, and he’s still resting comfortably at Mar-a-Lago, (and not in Manhattan where the alleged arrest was to take place), authorities in the Big Apple are pushing back on Trump’s assertions.
Manhattan prosecutors on Thursday said Donald Trump misled people to expect he would be arrested this week and prompted fellow Republicans in Congress to interfere with a probe under way into his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
On Saturday, the former president said 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 went on the offensive against District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, accusing him of abusing prosecutorial authority and seeking communications, documents and testimony from him.
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 officials did not mince their words.
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.”
And that wasn’t all…
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 had cited “illegal leaks” as his source for the information about his arrest.
As of this writing, there is no clear indication where the confusion came from.
