A federal judge denied a request from the Manhattan district attorney who has charged former President Donald Trump with falsifying business records to block subpoenas from House Republicans who are investigating the prosecutor.

The hearing was before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in Lower Manhattan.

Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit last week against Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, accusing the Ohio Republican of a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him for bringing 34 felony charges against Trump, the first time in U.S. history a former president has been indicted.

“Today’s decision shows that Congress has the ability to conduct oversight and issue subpoenas to people like Mark Pomeranz, and we look forward to his deposition before the Judiciary Committee," a spokesperson for Jordan said in a statement released by the House Judiciary panel.

A spokesperson for Bragg said in a statement "we respectfully disagree with the District Court's decision and are seeking a stay pending appeal."

The Judiciary Committee subpoenaed former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to testify on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Pomerantz resigned from his position February 2022 and recently published a memoir about the Trump investigation he once led. He had criticized Bragg for not pursuing charges against Trump sooner.

"The subpoena was issued with a 'valid legislative purpose' in connection with the 'broad' and 'indispensable' congressional power to 'conduct investigations,'" Vyskocil wrote in her ruling just hours after hearing both sides' arguments. "It is not the role of the federal judiciary to dictate what legislation Congress may consider or how it should conduct its deliberations in that connection." 

"Mr. Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition. No one is above the law," the judge continued.

Vyskocil aggressively questioned lawyers for Bragg, who is prosecuting Trump, and the House Judiciary Committee, which started scrutinizing Bragg's investigation of the former president in the weeks before his indictment. Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, sought to focus on the legalities, not the politics surrounding the case.

“I’m talking about the subpoena, that’s what’s in front of me,” Vyskocil said. "Not all the political rhetoric that’s been flying back and forth. That’s all color. That’s all theater, but it’s not what’s in front of me.”

Acknowledging the “political dogfights” surrounding the case, the judge said in her ruling that she “does not endorse either side’s agenda.” She encouraged both sides to speak and “reach a mutually agreeable compromise” on how Pomerantz's deposition will proceed.

Bragg’s lawsuit also named Pomerantz as a defendant, a strategic move by the DA’s office aimed at allowing him to decline to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee without facing contempt proceedings.

Pomerantz argued in a court filing that he should not be compelled to testify because he played no role in Bragg’s decision to charge Trump in connection with alleged hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and denied the affair.  

Jordan’s attorneys asked that Bragg’s lawsuit be dismissed, arguing it violates the Constitution’s speech or debate clause that can shield members of Congress from litigation related to their legislative work.

Jordan argued that lawmakers need to hear from Pomerantz as they consider possible legislation that would let current or former presidents move state criminal cases to federal court.

On Monday, Jordan led a Judiciary Committee “field hearing” in New York, in which he and other Republicans accused Bragg of prioritizing a politically motivated investigation into Trump over the city’s crime problems, which they falsely portrayed.  

“Here in Manhattan, the scales of justice are weighed down by politics," Jordan said at the hearing. "To the district attorney, justice isn't blind but about looking for opportunities to advance a political agenda, a radical political agenda. Rather than enforcing the law, the DA is using his office to do the bidding of left-wing campaign funders. He's taken this soft-on-crime approach.”

A spokesman for Bragg said in a statement Monday that "Ending violence, stopping crime, and supporting victims and their families are the most sacred duties of the Manhattan D.A.'s Office” and accused Republicans of appearing in New York “on the taxpayer dime for a political stunt.”