Inside look at their latest legal battle
- Bragg could become the first prosecutor to criminally indict a former president.
- Bragg has boasted that he helped sue Trump more than 100 times before the criminal trial.
- Trump and other Republicans have criticized the investigation as politically motivated.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is used to investigating Donald Trump, but there’s more at stake in his latest investigation.
Bragg is leading the investigation into whether Trump paid $130,000 to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. If a grand jury indicts Trump, he would be the first former president to be prosecuted.
The latest case culminates in years of Bragg investigations at the city and state levels into Trump and his aides, the Trump Organization and the Trump Foundation. As federal cases fizzled out, Bragg launched local indictments against political strategist Steve Bannon after Trump pardoned him and began the hush money investigation into Trump when the Justice Department declined to press charges.
Bragg boasted of helping to sue Trump more than 100 times during his 2021 campaign. A case he oversaw in the DA’s office led to the dissolution of the Trump Foundation after it paid $2 million to charities.
Bragg’s office has won convictions in cases his predecessor filed against two Trump companies and his chief financial officer.
Trump’s arguments with Bragg have become personal. Trump called Bragg, the first black man to become a Manhattan prosecutor, a “racist” for prosecuting him in a March 20 post on Truth Social and a “beast” who “respects the work of Anarchists and the Devil,” in two posts on March 23. Trump posted a picture on Truth Social, which he later removed, showing him holding a Baseball bat next to Bragg.
Bragg’s office said he was following the law to uncover the truth. As publicity grew about the case, he received death threats and a threatening letter containing an unknown substance on Friday.
“We will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the judicial process, nor will we be intimidated by baseless allegations from applying the law fairly,” said Bragg spokeswoman Danielle Filson.
Here’s what we know about the investigation:
Bragg is a veteran Harvard-educated prosecutor
Prior to his election to the District Attorney, Bragg served in the Attorney General’s Office and as Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
As assistant attorney general, he oversaw 1,500 employees and a budget of $225 million. Bragg was the first chief of a special unit investigating deaths caused by police behavior. And he directly oversaw the Trump Foundation’s litigation.
Before Bragg became a prosecutor, Trump pardoned Bannon on federal charges related to the nonprofit We Build The Wall Inc., which was charged with alleged money laundering and conspiracy in a scheme that raked in millions of dollars. But Bragg and Attorney General Letitia James announced a six-count indictment against Bannon and the group in September.
Bragg’s office won convictions against two branches of the Trump organization and its chief financial officer. Allen Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to 15 counts of tax evasion. Two Trump companies have been fined $1.6 million for convictions in 17 felonies.
Between government jobs, Bragg represented Eric Garner’s mother and sister in seeking information about his death during a 2014 arrest by city police. A city grand jury decided not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo, and federal prosecutors declined, to prosecute him.
Bragg earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from Harvard University.
Republicans slam Trump probe as ‘poor and untested’
Trump isn’t the only Republican to call the investigation political.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on March 20, “When you have a prosecutor who ignores crimes that happen every day in his jurisdiction and he decides to go back many, many years to try and do something about hush money payments from Using pornstars is an example of pursuing a political agenda.”
Three House committee chairs have asked Bragg to testify about his investigation, which they called “politically motivated” and “tenuous and untested.” When Bragg dismissed her questions about a pending criminal investigation, chairmen said they are considering legislation to prevent a local prosecutor from indicting a president from another party.
Leslie Dubeck, Bragg’s general counsel, told House Speakers that allegations of political motivation were “unfounded”.
Bragg went after Trump after others declined
Bragg’s critics complain that he has indicted events that have been known for years and that other prosecutors have decided not to pursue the prosecution:
Bragg critics focus on crime while he says kills, kills
New York’s crime rate figures prominently in Trump’s and other Republicans’ criticism of Bragg.
In a March 20 Truth Social post, Trump accused Bragg of “allowing murderers, rapists and drug dealers to roam free” and of directing the “greatest violent crime wave” in New York City history.
But Bragg’s office said homicides and shootings in Manhattan have declined since he took office more than a year ago.
Bragg’s office said homicides fell 16% and shootings fell 11% in the first year of his tenure. The trend continued this year, with homicides down 32% and shootings down 14%, the agency said.
“A lot of false claims have been made, so let’s clarify some particularly egregious statements about the safety of our great city lately,” Filson said.