Alvin Bragg, the New York District Attorney who gained notoriety by apprehending Donald Trump, has raved about his efforts to remove the former leader from office. No one is above the law in Manhattan, the prosecutor added, the “business capital of the world”.
Following Trump’s indictment on 34 counts last week, Bragg told reporters, “Today we uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone is equal under the law.” No amount of wealth or influence can alter this enduring American value.
Bragg says the pursuit of fair justice under the law was the driving force behind the patriotic choice to indict Trump. Never mind that Joe Biden got 86.8% of the vote in the county where Bragg ran for office promising to sue the ex-president despised by locals. And forget the fact that George Soros, a millionaire activist and the biggest fundraiser for Democratic Party candidates and organizations, backed a substantial part of Bragg’s 2021 campaign for Manhattan District Attorney.
Yes, Bragg claims his case is morally and legally correct. The charges he brought are so legally questionable, however, that only a Manhattan jury of Trump critics can believe him, according to a careful review of the indictment. He accuses Trump of manipulating business records six years ago, and by making allegations of the crimes he avoids the two-year statute of limitations for such crimes. He argues that the crimes were committed to hide election law violations when Trump was running for president in 2016 in order to qualify for it under New York’s criminal code.
These alleged transgressions were the result of an alleged silent payment to a porn star who claimed to have slept with Trump. On the face of it, the payment was legal, but if it could be shown that it was made solely to support Trump’s candidacy, it would exceed the amount allowed for a political contribution. At the time, the Federal Election Commission and the US Department of Justice investigated the situation, but concluded there was insufficient evidence to take legal action against Trump.
It would be hard to argue that Bragg is motivated by the interests of justice, even if you give him the benefit of the doubt as to his motives for coming after Trump – especially as the 2024 election is fast approaching and the he former president is currently elected as the top Republican nominee. For starters, Bragg shows little interest in investigating media leaks of information regarding Trump’s trial, which are themselves illegal under New York law.
Another reason is that the city is becoming increasingly lawless due to its approach to justice. As soon as he became a district attorney in January 2022, Bragg issued his first memo ordering the prosecution to stop locking up so many felons and reduce charges for offenses such as drug trafficking and robbery. army. Additionally, he asked his subordinates to recommend sentences that address racial inequalities in incarceration, which would imply that the criminal’s punishment should be at least partially based on their skin color.
Unlike Trump’s charges, which were turned into felonies, 52% of criminal cases sent to Bragg’s office in his first year as DA were reduced to misdemeanors. The prosecution lost more than half of the criminal cases that Bragg’s office handled.
Crime has increased in America’s largest city, which is also the world’s economic center, where many laws are enforced only sparingly, if at all. Car thefts increased by 16%. According to police statistics, more than 2,000 criminal assaults were committed in January alone, a 15% increase from the previous year.
Self-defense is the only area where Bragg seems to be very strict, with the exception of Republican presidential candidates. Take the example of Moussa Diarra, a parking attendant in Manhattan, who found himself chained to his bed when he woke up in a hospital earlier this month. A suspected burglar shot the 57-year-old twice. As the mechanic fought for his life, the suspect was also shot during a fight for his gun.
Diarra reportedly sobbed to his supervisor about his fate and said, “I had bullets inside me and I’m chained to a hospital bed, but I didn’t do anything wrong.” He was charged with attempting to shoot the suspected burglar, who was a career criminal with more than 20 arrests to his name, and of unlawfully possessing a firearm – the same firearm that was used in the shooting.
In response to widespread concern over the situation, the charges against Diarra were later dropped, “pending further investigation”. Diarra was forced to seek out a lawyer, who said the reason his client was initially charged was because police had not had enough time to determine how the two men ended up shot. Police, however, said the prosecutor’s office had ordered the mechanic’s detention and formal charge.
This could be seen as an anomaly or just a bad situation for Diarra. He may have been handcuffed to his hospital bed because it took authorities a while to realize he was a hero rather than an abuser, and charging him was only a temporary measure. If Bragg didn’t have a habit of seeking to penalize those who protect themselves, this might be believable.
Before Diarra, there was Jose Alba, a 61-year-old Dominican bodega owner who was assaulted by a 35-year-old black ex-convict behind the counter of his Harlem boutique last July. Alba fought for her life as the onslaught escalated, stabbing the young man to death after he sat impassively and pleaded with the attacker, allegedly claiming “Dad, I don’t want trouble”. While battling the attacker, Alba is seen in surveillance footage being stabbed by the attacker’s girlfriend.
Alba was held in the notorious Rikers Island prison after being charged with murder, where it is said he did not even receive proper treatment for his stab wounds. His first bail amount was $250,000. Weeks later, Bragg finally dropped the charges, but only after much criticism, including claims from the New York City Mayor and New York Police Department Commissioner that Alba had definitely acted in self-defense. The girlfriend who stabbed Alba has not been charged by the prosecutor.
In another instance, Bragg broke a promise he made during the campaign to drop charges against Tracy McCarter, a nurse who allegedly stabbed her abusive husband to death. In other cases, it has reduced charges against repeat offenders. One such man, who had nearly 90 arrests under his belt, was released on $1 bail after being apprehended last month for two alleged robberies that allegedly took place on the same day.
Bragg defended his actions saying it is necessary to focus on violent crime in order to free up scarce resources. Yet violent criminals were freed without bail to await trial under his direction, at least those not acting in self-defense. A man who was jailed for raping a teenage girl received a sweet plea deal from the district attorney that required him to serve just 30 days in jail. However, while out on bail and awaiting trial, he sexually assaulted five other people.
Despite limited resources and a survey indicating that 40% of office workers in New York City are considering moving elsewhere due to crime issues, Bragg has found time to pursue a political enemy. He does so in a case involving seven-year-old allegations that the most competent authorities, those who oversee federal elections, have determined are not worth investigating.
Either way, there’s no real justice done in Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan, and there’s no equal application of the law either. The practice of illicit legal activism is not unique to New York. About 70 lawyers are said to have won the district attorney elections in the United States with the help of Soros. By adjusting their prosecution tactics to legalize certain forms of crime and reward certain types of criminals, these social justice warriors have made their cities less safe and more damaging.
According to MSNBC political analyst Peter Beinart, who is a leftist, Trump’s pursuit is being led by a coalition of groups that have historically been the target of discrimination, including blacks, Jews and “LGBT people,” who came”. together to repel the white Christian nationalist assault on American democracy.”
Yes, groups who feel unfairly victimized are working together to remove the leading Republican presidential candidate from running for president in 2024 because they care so much about preserving democracy. Because, you know, democracy, they would love to be able to choose which candidates voters could vote for.
Some foreign leaders have been honest enough to say that the first arrest of a former US head of state is a clown show. For example, the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said: “Imagine if this happened in another country, when a government detained the main opposition candidate. Think what you want from former President Trump and the reasons why he is being investigated”. can no longer use “democracy” as a tool of foreign policy.