Full Name: Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr.
Hometown: New York, NY
Age: 49
Family: Married, No children
Education: Harvard, Harvard Law School
Position: District Attorney, Manhattan
Records show that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan D.A., has twice used his harassment of former President Donald Trump to get himself into the national spotlight.
In 2021, Bragg used his targeting of Trump to get himself elected.
During his campaign, he boasted about his targeting of Trump as a strength.
“I know how to build complex cases,” he said. “The next DA will inherit an ongoing investigation of Donald Trump. As Chief Deputy AG, I led the investigation into the Trump Foundation resulting in a judge ordering Trump to pay $2 million settlement and sued the Trump administration’s decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census and I’ve done complex mortgage fraud and tax cases.”
His effort paid off for him.
On November 2, 2021, Bragg made history by being the first African-American to be elected to Manhattan District Attorney.
His election drew national attention, according to CNN.
Earlier this year, Bragg once again used Trump to make national headlines for himself.
On April 4, 2023, Bragg filed 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, indicting Trump to make a name for himself.
Who is Alvin Bragg?
Charging Trump with 34 felony criminal charges drew national attention again.
In his indictment of the former president, Bragg accuses Trump of allegedly making “hush money payments” toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.
Bragg believes Trump made payments illegally “in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.”
In his press statement about the indictment, Bragg characterized Trump’s alleged activity with loaded, sensational wording. For example, his press statement said that Trump “orchestrated” his “catch and kill” scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries.”
Bragg ran against the incumbent D.A. Cy Vance in the Democratic primary in 2021.
Jim Jordan’s ‘campaign to intimidate and attack’ Bragg
In April 2023, Bragg tried to sue House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.
Bragg accused Jordan of engaging in a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his indictment of Trump.
Congress has longstanding power to hold hearings and compel witnesses to testify.
Bragg’s lawsuit said that it was filed “in response to an unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress on an ongoing New York State criminal prosecution and investigation of former President Donald J. Trump.”
Promise of fairness during his campaign
During his victory speech on election night in November 2021, Bragg said, “That is the trust that’s been given to me on the ballot, but given to all of us, that’s what we’ve worked for, to show the city and the country a model for pairing partnership, pairing fairness and safety into one.”
Sudden withdrawal of pension and IRAs
In his public financial disclosure report for 2021 (the year he campaigned for office), Bragg reported that he emptied out his retirement savings.
He withdrew:
- Between $250,000 and $500,000 from an IRA with TIAA
- Between $60,000 and $100,000 from an IRA with Sagepoint
- Between $250,000 and $500,000 from a pension with TIAA
‘The Anointed One’
In 1995, the Harvard Crimson referred to him as “the anointed one,” a moniker that he still holds to this day.
His mentors include the Rev. Calvin O. Butts, pastor of Harlem’s influential Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church was made infamous when the Deacon was accused of defrauding parishioners out of $200,000.
The defrauding centers around “actions of targeting and convincing unsuspecting parishioners of the Abyssinian Baptist Church to employ him (as) a general home improvement contractor so that he can abscond with their money.”
Growing up on Striver’s Row
Bragg grew up on a street known as Striver’s Row, an “historic haven for upper-middle-class Black professional households,” which was featured in the movie “Jungle Fever.”
Booker T. Washington IV is “rumored to live there.”
Striver’s Row is home to a variety of colorful characters.
One of its most infamous residents was Leontine Turner, the principal accused of cheating by helping 47 third-graders with answers to the state’s Common Core exam.
She later committed suicide.
Her $2.2 million Striver’s Row townhouse was her most valuable asset – her estranged husband and mother went to court in a famous case over it.
‘I was stopped at gunpoint . . . numerous times’
As a child, Bragg was stopped at gunpoint by NYPD officers.
He said that when he was 15, NY cops stopped him – with guns pulled – “numerous times.”
via amgreatness