In a letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Saturday, three House Republican committee chairs threatened to subpoena the prosecutor over his investigation into hush money payments made by former President Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.

“We believe that we now must consider whether Congress should take legislative action to protect former and/or current Presidents from politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials, and if so, how those protections should be structured,” the chairs wrote in an eight-page letter. “Critically, due to your own actions, you are now in possession of information critical to this inquiry.” 

The letter was a response to Bragg’s rejection of their previous request that he voluntarily testify in front of Congress and provide their committees with documents related to the investigation.

House Oversight Committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., signed the letter.

“It is not appropriate for Congress to interfere with pending local investigations,” Bragg said in a statement Saturday. “This unprecedented inquiry by federal elected officials into an ongoing matter serves only to hinder, disrupt and undermine the legitimate work of our dedicated prosecutors.”

The committee chairs and other Republicans have made the case that Bragg’s investigation is political and hinges on an unprecedented legal theory, though no potential charges have been made public yet.

The case centers on payments Trump made during his 2016 presidential campaign to women who said they had sexual encounters with him. Manhattan prosecutors appear to be looking at the former president's structuring of the payments and whether he attempted to hide a violation of campaign finance law by making an unrecorded, illegal contribution to his campaign in the form of the hush money.

Trump has denied having sex with either woman and any wrongdoing.

One potential charge Trump is facing is falsifying business records with intent to commit or conceal another crime, in this case the campaign finance violation, which would be a felony.

“We’re talking about a federal election crime here,” Comer told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “The Manhattan DA does not write federal election law.”

“This is something that if it needs to be investigated or prosecuted, it should be done on the federal level by the Department of Justice,” Comer added.

The Kentucky Republican said the decision to subpoena Bragg would ultimately be up to Jordan, who previously faced an ethics complaint for refusing to comply last year with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump and his allies have ratcheted up the attacks on Bragg since the former president first speculated he would be arrested in a matter of days more than a week ago. The Republicans have zeroed in on crime levels in New York City and indirect support Bragg received during his 2021 campaign from billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, a frequent target of right-wing criticism.

Major crimes in New York City were up in 2022, the highest such figure since 2007, according to the NYPD, but lower than in the early 2000s and far below the worst years of the 1980s and 1990s.

“New York remains one of the safest big cities in the U.S. with a far lower murder rate than the most populous cities where the Committee Chairmen hail from — Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kentucky,” Bragg’s office wrote in response to the House GOP committee chairs’ first letter.

On Friday, Bragg’s office received a threatening letter with a powdery substance, though law enforcement later “determined there was no dangerous substance,” according to Bragg spokesperson Danielle Filson.

“Alvin, I am going to kill you,” the letter said, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

At 1 a.m. on Friday morning, Trump posted on his social media platform threatening “potential death & destruction” if he were to be charged, calling Bragg a “degenerate psychopath that truly hates the USA!”

On Saturday, the former president was in Waco, Texas for the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign. The rally came amid the 30th anniversary of a weeks-long standoff between federal law enforcement and the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians that ended with the deaths of more than 80 cult members and four federal agents.

Trump’s campaign denied the rally’s location and timing was connected to the anniversary. 

He opened the rally by playing the song “Justice for All,” which features people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection singing the national anthem as the former president recites the Pledge of Allegiance.

“You will be vindicated and proud and the thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced," Trump said.