The liberal New York City prosecutor allegedly set to arrest former President Donald Trump has a history of facing accusations he’s soft on crime.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office may arrest Trump this week after a years-long investigation involving the ex-president’s alleged hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2020 election campaign, Trump claims.
Bragg’s office has not confirmed nor denied plans to arrest Trump, who has called for his supporters to protest ahead of the alleged indictment.
‘NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social this weekend.
As Trump’s successful 2016 presidential run came to a close, Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen sent $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from disclosing her 2006 affair with Trump. Trump reimbursed Cohen through installments.
Bragg empaneled a grand jury over the matter, indicating he will soon decide whether or not to charge the former president.
But Bragg, who came into office as a reform-minded DA, has repeatedly been accused of letting murderers off the hook, including when the family of a slain New York man said he betrayed them by not prosecuting a nurse who was charged with fatally stabbing her estranged husband.
‘It is our position that you have prematurely substituted your version of events for the fact-finding functions of the jury and neither honored your promise to the court or to my family to seek even a measure of accountability,’ the brother of slain man James Murray, Steven Murray, wrote to Bragg in December.
James Murray was fatally stabbed by estranged wife Tracy McCarter in 2020, who said she killed her husband in self-defense and that he was an abusive alcoholic. McCarter was championed by domestic violence advocates, according to previous coverage from the New York Post, and Bragg received a donation from advocacy group Color of Change, which advocated for her release, during his run as DA.
He tweeted in support of McCarter’s release in the run-up to his election and ultimately secured his bid to drop murder charges against the woman, which the family of the slain man said was ‘100%’ motivated by the donation from Color of Change.
Similar cases have unfolded since his inauguration, including him getting ridiculed for cutting a sweetheart deal with a career criminal who went on to punch a woman randomly; his slap on the wrist for a man who viciously assaulted a 55-year-old nurse; and jailing, yet ultimately releasing, the bodega owner who killed an aggressive ex-convict who attacked him on murder charges.
In 2022, during Bragg’s first year as Manhattan’s top prosecutor, he downgraded more than half of felony cases to misdemeanors. He campaigned on criminal justice reform and sent a ‘Day One’ memo to staff upon taking office to downgrade certain felonies, such as armed robberies of commercial businesses. The move came at a time when crimes were up 27.6% in New York City, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Bragg declined to prosecute 35% more felony cases than in 2019.
Trump on Sunday went after Bragg for his financial support from liberal billionaire donors George Soros, who donated $1 million to the Color of Change political action committee, which funneled money to Bragg, the New York Post previously reported.
‘Bragg is a (Soros) Racist in Reverse, who is taking his orders from D.C. I beat them TWICE, doing much better the second time, and despite their DISINFORMATION campaign, they don’t want to run against ‘TRUMP’ or my GREAT RECORD!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday.
Tom Anderson, the director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center in Virginia, previously told the outlet that Soros’ donations are a ‘shock and awe’ political maneuver.
‘George Soros has quietly orchestrated the dark money political equivalent of ‘shock and awe’ on local attorney races through the country, shattering records, flipping races and essentially making a mockery of our entire campaign finance system,’Anderson told the New York Post.
Bragg was elected in 2021 and became the first Black American to lead the powerful office. But since assuming office, he has also been hit with criticisms from other New York leaders, including NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who said she was ‘very concerned’ with his ‘Day One’ memo.
‘I am making my concerns known to the Manhattan District Attorney and hope to have frank and productive discussions to try and reach more common ground,’ Sewell wrote in a message to officers last year. ‘As police commissioner, your safety is my paramount concern. That is one reason I am seeking to have conversations with the district attorney to seek a better balance between officer safety, public safety and reform.’
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the investigation into Trump as a ‘witch hunt’ and accused Bragg of being in the pocket of President Joe Biden and ‘radical Democrats.’
‘President Donald J. Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear,’ Cheung wrote in a statement.