Federal appeals court delays deposition of ex-Manhattan prosecutor in Trump probe

A federal appeals court has temporarily delayed the congressional deposition of Mark Pomerantz, a former senior prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation of former President Trump.

House Republicans are seeking to question Pomerantz as part of their probe into the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution of Trump. The House Judiciary Committee had scheduled his deposition for Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.

After a federal district court denied a bid to quash Pomerantz’s subpoena on Wednesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary pause on the deposition hours before it was set to begin.

The pause will last until a three-judge panel on the 2nd Circuit can hear a motion from Pomerantz and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) to pause the lower court ruling while their appeal proceeds.

“This order reflects no judgment regarding the merits of the parties’ respective positions,” the appeals court wrote in its order.

The court has put in place a quick schedule to consider the motion. Written briefs will be submitted through Saturday afternoon, and the court further directed the clerk to schedule the motion’s consideration for the first available three-judge panel.

Bragg last week filed the lawsuit against House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.) to block Pomerantz’s subpoena and Jordan’s other attempts at getting information from prosecutors. Bragg has portrayed the investigation as a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” his office’s work.

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, on Wednesday rejected Bragg’s bid to quash Pomerantz’s subpoena.

“In our federalist system, elected state and federal actors sometimes engage in political dogfights. … The Court does not endorse either side’s agenda. The sole question before the Court at this time is whether Bragg has a legal basis to quash a congressional subpoena that was issued with a valid legislative purpose. He does not,” Vyskocil wrote.

Pomerantz served as a top prosecutor on the district attorney’s Trump case, which began under Bragg’s predecessor.

Pomerantz resigned in February 2022, which was soon after Bragg took office and more than a year before Trump’s indictment. Pomerantz has said he left over Bragg’s reluctance at the time to seek criminal charges against Trump from an empaneled grand jury.