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WASHINGTON, D. C. - U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan is deciding whether to draft legislation that would protect former and/or current Presidents from politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials in response to potential charges against former President Donald Trump for his role in making an alleged $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, joined the chairs of the House Administration and House Oversight and Accountability committees in a Saturday letter that reiterated an earlier demand for documents and testimony from the New York district attorney pursuing the case.

Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former Presidents by elected state and local prosecutors, particularly those tried before elected state and local trial-level judges, said the letter Jordan wrote with Administration chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin and Oversight chairman James Comer of Kentucky.

Therefore, the Committee on the Judiciary, as a part of its broad authority to develop criminal justice legislation, must now consider whether to draft legislation that would, if enacted, insulate current and former presidents from such improper state and local prosecutions, the letter said. These legislative reforms may include, for example, broadening the existing statutory right of removal of certain criminal cases from state court to federal court. Because your impending indictment of a former President is an issue of first impression, the Committees require information from your office to inform our oversight.

Jordan and the other two committee chairs last week wrote a letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., that accused him of pursuing Trumps indictment for political reasons, calling it an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority. Their letter followed a claim by Trump last week that his arrest was imminent. If Trump is arrested, legal experts say he would be the first former U.S. president to ever face criminal charges.

A few days after Jordans first letter, an attorney for Bragg responded that the inquiry amounted to federal interference with a local prosecution. The letter noted Jordans first letter came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.

The letter from General Counsel Leslie B. Dubeck called the congressional requests an unlawful incursion into New Yorks sovereignty and said Congresss investigative jurisdiction is derived from and limited by its power to legislate concerning federal matters.

If a grand jury brings charges against Donald Trump, the DAs Office will have an obligation, as in every case, to provide a significant amount of discovery from its files to the defendant so that he may prepare a defense, it continued. It said the allegation that the DAs Office is pursuing a prosecution for political purposes is unfounded, and regardless, the proper forum for such a challenge is the Courts of New York.

Since becoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in January, Jordan has started probes of allegedly improper political acts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Biden administrations handling of immigration and border security issues, whether the federal government improperly influenced Twitter, and whether the U.S. Air Force improperly released personnel files to Democratic political operatives, among other things.

At a weekend rally for his presidential campaign in Waco, Texas, Trump claimed political pressure from Washington, D.C. was behind the New York prosecution. He also singled out Jordan and Comer for praise.

These are great people, putting themselves at risk because they take a lot of abuse but they are doing something we have not seen in Washington in 25 years, Trump said of the pair.

Sabrina Eaton covers the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Read more of her work here.

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Jim Jordan weighs bill that would keep ex-President Donald Trump from being indicted by local prosecutors - cleveland.com