One Republican bashed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as “pro-criminal.” Another called him a “terrible” prosecutor with a habit of losing cases. A third suggested he was in the pocket of George Soros, a wealthy Jewish financier demonized by the far right.
“He should resign and be disbarred,” declared Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ). Two weeks after Bragg announced 34 criminal charges against former President Trump, House Republicans traveled to his home turf on Monday to hold a hearing attacking Bragg’s record on crime, leveling exaggerated and sometimes false charges.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, convened his panel at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building to hear from witnesses who have been critics of Bragg for a session that was supposedly about crime in New York City but whose subtext was an effort to tarnish the man who is prosecuting Trump, the New York Times reports.
The bitterly adversarial hearing unfolded in a carnival-like atmosphere, drawing angry protesters from the left and the right who hoisted signs and hurled invective a bit more vitriolic than the debate between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), chastised Republicans for traveling to New York to go after Bragg, saying they were behaving like “jackbooted thugs.”
Reported crime in Manhattan, where Bragg took office in January 2022, is down from last year by about 2.4 percent — though it remains up significantly from two years ago.
Republicans used individual crime victims to sully Bragg's record. Witnesses invited by Republicans told personal horror stories of their encounters with crime in the city, including suffering an antisemitic attack and losing a loved one in a brutal stabbing. The witnesses described New York as being in a state of decay, and blamed Bragg’s policies.
Democrats pushed back while showing sympathy for the victims.
“I fear that you are being used for a political purpose, despite your sincerity,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), prompting objections from the witnesses.
Bragg has referred to New York as the “safest big city in America” and emphasized that its crime rate is lower than cities in the states of many of his Republican critics, including Columbus, Ohio, south of Jordan’s district.