The Manhattan district legal professional overseeing an investigation that might result in felony expenses in opposition to former United States President Donald Trump has rejected Republican lawmakers’ assaults on the inquiry, accusing them of an “illegal incursion” into his jurisdiction.

Alvin Bragg’s workplace despatched a response on Thursday to a letter from key Republicans within the US Congress demanding he testify about what they known as a “politically motivated prosecutorial resolution”.

Bragg’s workplace is investigating claims that Trump authorised a hush cash cost to grownup movie star Stormy Daniels forward of the 2016 presidential election, and the case garnered renewed consideration on the weekend after the previous president stated he anticipated to be arrested.

Of their letter this week, Republican legislators within the Home of Representatives additionally requested paperwork regarding the investigation. Bragg’s workplace stated the requests violated the US system during which states, not the federal authorities, have police energy.

“The Letter’s requests are an illegal incursion into New York’s sovereignty,” stated the written response signed by Leslie Dubeck, the district legal professional’s normal counsel.

“Congress’s investigative jurisdiction is derived from and restricted by its energy to legislate regarding federal issues.”

Bragg’s workplace additionally dismissed the accusation that the Trump investigation is politically motivated, stressing that Congress shouldn’t be the fitting venue to handle any points with a neighborhood prosecution.

“The Letter’s allegation that the DA’s Workplace is pursuing a prosecution for political functions is unfounded, and regardless, the correct discussion board for such a problem is the Courts of New York, that are outfitted to contemplate and evaluate such objections,” it stated.

Bragg, an elected Democrat, has grow to be a goal of Trump and his allies since his workplace empanelled a grand jury to find out whether or not to convey felony expenses in opposition to the previous president.

The case revolves across the cost that Trump’s former private lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels forward of the 2016 election. Daniels stated she had an affair with Trump, who’s married, and Cohen stated he paid her on Trump’s orders.

The previous president has denied the affair and stated the cost was to guard his popularity from a false accusation, insisting that he did nothing fallacious.

A grand jury has been assembly behind closed doorways this week to find out whether or not to put expenses in opposition to Trump.

A number of US media retailers have reported that the potential expenses relate to the way in which Trump reimbursed Cohen with prosecutors alleging that he improperly labelled the funds as authorized bills.

If the cost is set to be a marketing campaign donation, it may even have violated election legal guidelines that cap contributions to political candidates at $2,700 per particular person and require them to be made public. It stays unclear what actual expenses Trump could possibly be dealing with.

On Saturday, Trump stated he anticipated to be arrested on Tuesday and urged his supporters to protest.

Republican lawmakers had been fast to come back to the defence of the previous president, who’s in search of the White Home once more in 2024.

“Alvin Bragg ought to concentrate on prosecuting precise criminals in New York Metropolis reasonably than harassing a political opponent in one other state,” the Republican members of the Home judiciary committee wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “Make Manhattan Protected Once more!”

On Monday, the Republican chairmen of three highly effective Home committees despatched their letter rebuking Bragg.

“You’re reportedly about to interact in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former president of the US and present declared candidate for that workplace,” the heads of the Home judiciary, oversight and administration panels wrote.

In his response on Thursday, Bragg stated the congressional request got here after “Trump created a false expectation that he can be arrested the subsequent day”.

Bragg known as for a gathering with the committees’ workers members to “higher perceive what data the DA’s Workplace can present that pertains to a authentic legislative curiosity and will be shared in line with the District Legal professional’s constitutional obligations”.

Trump continued to hit out at Bragg this week, invoking crime charges in New York Metropolis, which have been on the rise since earlier than the district legal professional took workplace final yr.

“The District Legal professional’s Workplace beneath Alvin Bragg is permitting Violent Crime to flourish in New York Metropolis, like by no means earlier than, whereas he spends all of his time making his Workplace, which is in whole chaos, looking for something on ‘Trump’,” the previous president wrote on his Reality Social platform.

“He’s doing the work of Anarchists and the Satan, who need our Nation to fail.”

Murder charges fell in New York final yr, however different crimes, together with theft, surged.