Attorney General Alvin Bragg
This is the man who will bring Trump to justice
3/31/2023 9:54 am
Even before Donald Trump was indicted, the Manhattan Attorney General was the target of violent attacks from the ex-president’s camp. But Alvin Bragg was undeterred. Now it comes to the process – and the lawyer responds with a statement in two sentences.
The attacks against Alvin Bragg were not long in coming. No sooner had the charges against ex-President Donald Trump in a hush-money affair become known than verbal attacks rained down on Manhattan’s senior attorney general. Trump described the 49-year-old lawyer as a “disgrace” who did the “dirty work” for President Joe Biden. Party friends of the ex-president accused Bragg of “un-American” behavior and instrumentalization of the judiciary, with which he had “irreparably damaged” the United States.
The attacks do not come as a surprise, because the Manhattan District Attorney has gone to a politically highly mined area: he was the first prosecutor ever to obtain an indictment against Trump. It is also the first indictment against a former US President in history.
That Bragg finds himself in this role is not without irony. After taking office as chief prosecutor in Manhattan in early January 2022, he caused a stir by deciding not to prosecute Trump in connection with his business empire’s financial conduct. Angered by this decision, the two prosecutors responsible for the investigation promptly resigned.
Attacked the Chief Prosecutor
A trial followed in which the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg were convicted of tax fraud – undoubtedly a success for Bragg. Trump himself escaped prosecution in this process. To this end, Bragg resumed the investigation initiated by his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr. into a hush money payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, which was then not pursued further. It is in this case, dating back to before the 2016 presidential election, that Trump has now been indicted.
The ex-president and leading Republican have lashed out at Bragg ever since impeachment surfaced. Trump describes himself as the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt” by vengeful Democrats who want to prevent him from retaking the White House in 2024.
Bragg has always claimed to make decisions based on legal considerations, not political calculations. “The second we think we’re politicians, we take a real wrong turn,” he told the New York Times a few months after taking office.
Experts doubt the chances of success
But of course the office also has a political dimension. Chief prosecutors like Bragg are elected in the US and the 49-year-old belongs to the Democratic Party. Prosecutors also have wide discretion over which cases to prosecute and which not. And there is no question that investigations into an ex-head of state and presidential candidate are politically highly explosive.
The Republicans repeatedly point out that not only did Bragg’s predecessor Vance not pursue the allegations of hush money against Trump, but also the federal prosecutor’s office and the US election commission. That in itself does not mean that the allegations against Trump cannot be valid. But some legal experts are also wondering whether Bragg can win a lawsuit against Trump in the legally complex case.
Bragg became the first black man to be elected chief attorney for Manhattan in the fall of 2021. The Harvard University graduate from Harlem, New York, can look back on a long career as a public prosecutor. He has worked for the New York State Attorney’s Office and the New York State Attorney General’s Office, among others.
A two-sentence statement
During the election campaign for the top job in Manhattan, he campaigned, among other things, for a focus on rehabilitation for minor crimes and sending fewer people to prison. That made him a target for Republicans, who accuse the Democrats of being weak in the fight against crime.
After Trump recently called on his supporters to protest over his alleged imminent arrest, Bragg was undaunted. “We will not tolerate attempts to intimidate our agency or threaten the rule of law in New York,” the attorney general wrote in an email to his staff. “As with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law in a balanced and fair manner.”
After the indictment against Trump became known, the public prosecutor’s office published a statement consisting of only two sentences: The authority had contacted Trump’s lawyer to coordinate how the ex-president could present himself for a reading of the still sealed indictment. More details will be announced as soon as a date is set.