Alvin Bragg the prosecutor in the Trump case waded into treacherous political waters
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But the Trump question came to dominate the Democratic primary as the race entered its final stretch in 2021. As the district attorneys investigation against the former president began to heat up, Bragg and his opponents started to signal to prospective voters they had the bona fides to lead a potential prosecution of Trump.
Bragg had some history to draw on. In 2017 and 2018 he served as a senior official in the New York attorney generals office, which at the time brought a bevy of lawsuits against Trumps administration. One of them, filed in June 2018, accused the Donald J. Trump Foundation and the Trump family of a shocking pattern of illegality. That lawsuit was successful, leading to the foundations dissolution.
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Still, as a candidate, Bragg was mostly focused elsewhere. His fundamental campaign promise was to balance public safety and fairness, following in the footsteps of a wave of recently elected prosecutors who pledged a new approach to crime. They argued that cracking down on minor infractions only led to recidivism, and that taking a more merciful approach to defendants made cities safer.
When you look at who he defined himself to be, it wasnt about Trump. It was an approach to the justice system that was fair, balanced and equitable, said Kim Foxx, the states attorney of Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, who campaigned on a platform similar to that of Bragg.
When Bragg took office, and his prosecutors were presenting evidence about Trump and his businesses to a grand jury, the new district attorney stopped them, concerned that the case, which centered on whether Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his properties, was not strong enough to move forward. The public backlash was swift.
In much the way that Trump shifted the conversation in Braggs campaign, the former president has shifted the focus of the district attorneys administration. And Bragg will likely find that his tenure is now intertwined with the former president.
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Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 12:41 am