ORLANDO, Florida — House Republican conference chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told Breitbart News exclusively that she believes Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should be called to testify before the U.S. Congress as soon as possible under oath to explain his decision to pursue what she called “political” charges against former President Donald Trump.
“I think we should hear Alvin Bragg testify before Congress, under oath, about his vision and the fact that this is wildly political and the fact that this was not pursued by federal courts and the fact that the Department of Justice passed on this,” Stefanik said in an interview at the House GOP retreat. “I also want to hear his answers about funding from George Soros. I want to hear his answers about the crime crisis in New York. So, at the same time like I said that you have him lowering felonies to misdemeanors you have something that is beyond the statute of limitations and is a political witch hunt. So I absolutely want to hear Alvin Bragg testify before Congress.”
Stefanik, a member of the House Judiciary Committee’s select subcommittee on weaponization, is organizing the House GOP retreat here along with Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the rest of House GOP leadership. Her comments came during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Monday morning, and represent a quick escalation from House Republicans in response to Trump’s announcement over the weekend that Bragg was going to indict him this week over a seven-year-old case that several of his predecessors had passed on as had federal officials.
McCarthy ordered relevant congressional panels to begin investigating possible federal dollars or assistance in Bragg’s highly politicized efforts, and the beginnings of that became clear on Monday as a letter from House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), and House Administration Committee chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI), to Bragg demanded he produce communications and documents on the matter to their committees.
“This is the epitome of the weaponizing of the federal government against Democrats’ political opponents,” Stefanik told Breitbart News. “Being a native New Yorker, being from my home state of New York, Alvin Bragg is as radical and left-wing as they come. Over a million dollars funded by George Soros. This was a case that was considered a zombie case. Federal prosecutors did not pursue this case because there is no there there. Meanwhile, you have Alvin Bragg basically doing the bidding essentially of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party because they can’t beat President Trump at the ballot box. What is very frustrating is we think about New York State where we have a crime crisis, literally the epicenter of the crime crisis is because of Alvin Bragg’s soft-on-crime policies. So, at the same time you have this DA lowering felonies to misdemeanors, you have him pursuing a non-case just for political vengeance. Our intent just from a congressional perspective is there needs to be robust oversight and accountability and the way we do that is through the House Judiciary Committee, the select committee on weaponization. We’ll go after any federal funding and any communications between the Department of Justice and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office—making sure we uncover every communication in terms of how they politicized this effort to go after President Trump. I view this as another chapter in a very sordid and very un-American tale of Democrats going after President Trump going back to the 2016 Russia Hoax, going back to faulty FISA application, going back to whether it was Clapper and Comey lying before Congress. It’s not just President Trump they’re going after. They’re now going after parents and calling them domestic terrorists. This is part of again just this weaponization of the federal government against folks because they have different political beliefs and because they happen to be Republicans.”
Stefanik, Trump’s highest-profile supporter in the House and the only member of House GOP leadership who has endorsed Trump so far in 2024, said this proves America needs Trump back in the White House “now more than ever.”
“I think we need Trump now more than ever because he is uniquely able to clean out the swamp,” Stefanik said. “This is the depths of the swamp and we talk about the swamp—it’s political appointees, bureaucrats, Democrats going after Republicans, going after innocent Republicans because they have differing political beliefs. It’s truly the weaponization of the federal government. What I’ve found in my own microcosm in my own congressional district is the harder Democrats attack, whether it’s through the lies in the mainstream media or whether it’s raising millions of dollars from far-left donors, the stronger we get because people rally in support because they want to make sure their representatives work for them. The American people are going to rally behind President Trump in showing their strong support. I also believe we’re going to be more organized going into 2024 because not only have people seen the abysmal failure of Joe Biden but they’ve seen how a government that is slipping away by the day and becoming more and more like a third-world country that can be weaponized against innocent Americans. We need to save our country.”