As his office approaches a decision on whether to charge the former president, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is refusing to back down in the face of Donald Trump’s increasingly antagonistic language, warning his workers that the office won’t be intimidated or dissuaded.
After Trump published a three-part, all-caps social media message in which he threatened to be jailed soon, criticized the district attorney and urged his fans to demonstrate and “TAKE OUR NATION BACK,” Bragg wrote an internal letter late on Saturday.
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Despite without mentioning Trump by name, Bragg made it plain that he was writing about the Republican, whose office has been summoning witnesses before a grand jury looking into hush money paid on his behalf during his 2016 campaign. The letter was released as law enforcement authorities in New York City made security arrangements for the potential that Trump may be charged and appear in Manhattan court.
When writing about “press attention and public comments” on an ongoing investigation by his office, Bragg said, “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”
Online posts about demonstrations started to appear as Bragg attempted to allay worries about potential threats. One such event was a rally against Bragg on Monday that was organized by the New York Young Republican Club.
Four law enforcement sources told The Associated Press that New York’s law enforcement is also keenly watching internet discussion that threatens riots and violence if Trump is detained. The threats that law enforcement officers are monitoring range in detail and veracity, according to the officials. The messages, which have been primarily shared online and in chat rooms, have urged armed protestors to block law enforcement agents and try to prevent any potential arrests, according to the officials.
In case Trump is charged, the law enforcement authorities are also talking about a variety of security strategies for lower Manhattan. According to those preparations, which the authorities classified as tentative, it may be necessary to close down a number of streets near the Manhattan criminal courts and block them with big trucks, using the same security procedures used for parades and important events in New York.
The officials talked to the AP under the condition of anonymity because they were unable to publicly disclose specifics of the security arrangements.
When Democrat Bragg became an office in January 2022, the long-running Trump probe was handed over to him. However, holdover prosecutors soon criticized Bragg for abandoning efforts to prosecute the former president for business-related crimes.
Before turning to what he calls the “next chapter” of the investigation, which will focus on the hush money payments, which have been the focus of numerous federal and state investigations over the past six years, Bragg bounced back with convictions for Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, and his fellow former finance chief for an unassociated tax fraud scheme.
Bragg is attempting to comfort his 1,600 employees as that investigation draws to a close in the face of growing animosity from Trump and his followers.
He stated in his message Saturday night that “any specific or credible threats against the office” be looked into and that the office is coordinating with court officials and the New York City police to make sure everyone is secure.
The memo and Trump’s earlier social media posts highlighted the differences in style between Bragg and Trump—two native New Yorkers, but with very distinct identities and from other times, neighborhoods, and histories.
Old-school attorney Bragg has refrained from publicly commenting on the hush-money investigation’s status or Trump’s inflammatory tweets. He likes to let his work speak for itself. Additionally, his administration declined to comment.
No timeline for the decision to charge Trump has been made public, and at least one more witness is scheduled to appear, most likely on Monday, further demonstrating that no decision to indict has been made.
Trump attacked Bragg, the city of Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, in a post on Sunday, branding him a “Racist in Reverse” and falsely accusing him of following Justice Department orders and acting as a go-between for Democratic billionaire George Soros, whose Color Of Change PAC funded Bragg’s campaign.
The “perfect storm” of increased crime, political pressure, and internal conflict he was experiencing during the course of the Trump probe was present when Bragg, 49, took office 15 months ago.
Former federal prosecutor, chief deputy state attorney general, and civil rights attorney Bragg received his Harvard education. He also served as chief deputy attorney general and state attorney general.
As a senior officer in the state attorney general’s office, he prosecuted a disgruntled FBI agent and oversaw legal actions against Trump. His life experiences include being detained at gunpoint six times, three of those occasions by police, while growing up in Harlem amid the 1980s crack cocaine pandemic.
But soon after entering office, Republicans and some moderate Democrats began to disparage Bragg as being soft on crime because of a “Day One” letter he delivered to employees describing his stance on whether or not to press charges in specific cases. It said, among other things, that the DA would no longer pursue certain low-level misdemeanor offenses, such as marijuana possession and avoiding paying for the subway.
Republican former US Representative Lee Zeldin ran for governor last year in part on a pledge to force the independently elected Bragg out of office. Friends were concerned for Bragg’s safety as the hatred towards him got so vile and even racial.
In his first year in office, The New York Post had Bragg on its front page 13 times, including five times in his first month, under mocking headings like “Happy 2022, Criminals!” and “‘Justice’ Gone Mad.”
When Bragg arrived at the district attorney’s office each morning, a Post photographer began to routinely grill him with questions, which he frequently disregarded. In reality, there were fewer homicides and gunshots in Manhattan in 2022 than there were in 2021, even if certain forms of crime grew.
Disagreements were once again voiced last month in a book written by a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, on how the Trump probe was being handled inside the district attorney’s office.
In 2021, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., Bragg’s predecessor, granted the go-ahead for Pomerantz and Carey Dunne to pursue an indictment on allegations that Trump inflated the value of his assets in financial statements he sent to lenders. Before the issue was resolved, Vance resigned from his position, leaving Bragg to decide whether to press charges.
Bragg chose to delay, claiming doubts about the credibility of the evidence. He recently stated that Pomerantz’s aircraft wasn’t prepared for takeoff.
Pomerantz and Dunne’s resignations as a result of the delay raised the possibility that Bragg had given up on bringing a case against Trump.
In a rare instance of public discourse, Bragg disputed that claim in April of last year, writing: “In the long and proud tradition of white-collar prosecutions at the Manhattan DA’s Office, we are investigating thoroughly and following the facts without fear or favor.”
