Funding for crime victims in jeopardy amid brawl between Manhattan DA and GOP Reps

U.S. House Republicans are threatening to block federal funding to the Manhattan district attorney’s office as congressmembers prepare to scrutinize the office’s approach to public safety. But those same lawmakers who claim the city isn’t doing enough to help those affected by crime could jeopardize hundreds of thousands of federal dollars to support victims.

The Monday hearing announced on the heels of Bragg’s historic indictment against former President Donald Trump is sparking a heated back-and-forth between the progressive prosecutor and conservatives in Congress, who are accusing each other of misusing their offices for political gain.

Threats to the funding come as a federal stockpile for victim services is already struggling to rebound from Trump-era declines.

Since Bragg took office in 2022, prosecutors in the Manhattan DA's office refer victims and witnesses to the Witness Aid Services Unit at higher rates, according to data from Bragg’s office.

The unit, which provides counseling and other resources to crime victims and witnesses, is partially funded through a $580,000 federal grant, according to a letter Bragg’s office sent congressional Republicans.

Internal referrals to the unit jumped by 200% as of last December compared to December 2021, according to the DA’s office. During that same time period, the DA’s office said, the unit helped more people apply for Section 8 housing assistance — a 143% increase — and seek assistance from the city’s Human Resources Administration — a 385% increase.

Those resources are vital to people experiencing the trauma of a crime, said Beverly Gilchrist, the office’s deputy chief for survivor services, in an interview last month.

“It’s important that survivors are experiencing a district attorney’s office with a lens of survivor-focused, trauma-informed principles that essentially are there to make this very complicated process — this very stressful and traumatic process — a little bit more manageable,” Gilchrist said.

The Manhattan DA’s office also received $50,000 from Washington to help prosecute cases of violence against women and about $205,000 to address violent crime and other felonies through a grant that runs between October 2020 and September 2024.

But Trump's allies in Congress argue that Bragg is focused on a “politically motivated” case against the ex-president instead of on people who repeatedly commit crimes in his borough.

“With New Yorkers continuing to feel unsafe and leaving the city and state in record numbers, I look forward to holding Democrats accountable for their failure to prosecute crimes and instead engage in illegal political witch-hunts against their political opponents,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican who represents parts of upstate New York, in a statement.

Records from the Manhattan DA’s office show it spent about $5,000 of federal forfeiture money on its investigations into Trump and his organization between October 2019 and August 2021, according to a letter his office sent to the chairs of the judiciary committee last month shared with Gothamist.

Threats to the office’s funding stream come as the Manhattan DA’s Witness Aid Services Unit hopes to expand its staff to keep up with growing demand.

The unit’s staff help crime victims and witnesses navigate the complex and often emotionally draining process that accompanies a criminal prosecution. Sometimes that means free mental health counseling sessions for a victim, and other times that means covering funeral expenses or changing the locks at someone’s home, said Gilchrist.

At a recent budget hearing, Bragg’s office asked the city to increase the unit’s budget by about $1.1 million in the next fiscal year to hire more advocates and counselors.

Christopher Bromson, executive director of the Crime Victims Treatment Center, said it’s never easy for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors to interact with the criminal justice system, regardless of what services are in place at the DA’s office.

“The system is not set up to support them,” he said.

But Bromson said the unit at the Manhattan DA’s office is “literally holding a hand through a court process” and that he’s afraid of what would happen if federal funding went away.

“It’s abhorrent to take away money that is meant to serve victims because of politics,” he said.

Whether or not House Republicans ultimately try to revoke grants awarded to the Manhattan DA’s office, some victims’ advocates are already worried about the future of funding for support services. One of the main sources of federal dollars, the Crime Victims Fund, shrunk substantially during the Trump administration and continues to flounder since President Joe Biden took office.

The fund is mainly bolstered through fines and other money forfeited when people are convicted of federal crimes — particularly white-collar crimes. But white-collar prosecutions have declined in recent years.

There was $1.9 billion in the fund as of February 2023, according to the U.S. Office for Victims of Crime. That’s a significant drop from the $13 billion available during Trump’s first year in office, but slightly more than the $1.5 billion in the fund at the end of the last fiscal year, according to federal data.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents parts of Manhattan, sponsored legislation to add a new source of revenue to the fund and to increase the amount of money states can receive for compensation programs. Congress passed the bill in 2021 and it has since been signed into law.