Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg made history as the first prosecutor in the U.S. to charge an ex-president with a crime. The 34-count business fraud indictment against former President Donald Trump is bringing international attention to the attorney who oversees the prosecutor’s office.
Trump’s arraignment last week is just the start of a complex case brought on by the Manhattan DA’s office that could take months or even years to wind its way through the courts. House Republicans are already scrutinizing the prosecutor and announced plans to hold a hearing next week in New York City to examine his policies.
In case you’re not already familiar with Bragg, here are five things you should know about the man leading the case against Trump:
Bragg has already made history as the first Black man to lead the Manhattan DA’s office
Bragg describes himself as a “son of Harlem” who grew up and still lives in Manhattan’s Mecca of Black culture. He regularly speaks about his firsthand experiences with violence and having guns pointed at him in the neighborhood — both at the hands of civilians and police.
Bragg won a crowded Democratic primary in 2021, beating out seven other candidates with about 34% of the vote. In the general election, about 83% of voters cast their ballots for him in the deep blue borough. Like most of the Democratic candidates in the race, Bragg ran on a progressive platform, promising to focus on gun crime while also sending fewer people to Rikers Island.
Bragg assumed the role in January 2022, succeeding Cyrus Vance Jr. — who spent a decade leading the office and is often remembered for not pursuing charges against film producer Harvey Weinstein and Trump’s children. Under Vance, the DA’s office also reduced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex offender status to the lowest classification.
Bragg has prosecuted cases at both the state and federal level
Bragg worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted cases ranging from drug and gun trafficking to corruption and money laundering. He also held several roles in the state attorney general’s office, eventually rising to the rank of Chief Deputy Attorney General. During his time with the AG’s office, he examined the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices and was chosen as the inaugural leader of a unit created to investigate and prosecute law enforcement officials accused of killing unarmed people.
In a USA Today op-ed published several months after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Bragg shared lessons he had learned prosecuting police, a job he called “perhaps the most challenging work a prosecutor can do.”
He urged his fellow prosecutors to listen to the families of those killed by police, to be transparent and to humanize the victims of police violence. He also warned that bringing cases against police would likely provoke backlash — a consequence he said he was willing to face.
“If you will be criticized no matter what you do, all the more reason to do exactly what you think is just and proper,” he wrote. “Follow the facts without fear or favor.”
The Trump indictment is not Bragg’s first big case
The 49-year-old prosecutor has taken on several other high-profile cases during his more than two-decade-long career, including other defendants in Trump’s orbit.
Last year, Bragg indicted former Trump confidant Stephen Bannon on various money laundering, fraud and conspiracy charges related to a scheme he is accused of orchestrating to pocket money from a fundraiser to build a wall at the southern border. Bragg was also involved in the prosecution of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, who pleaded guilty to grand larceny and tax fraud and was sentenced to five months in jail earlier this year.
Gun violence has also been a central focus for the Manhattan DA. Last summer, Bragg’s office indicted 10 people allegedly connected with a string of murders, attempted murders, robberies and shootings in Washington Heights, Midtown, the Lower East Side and The Bronx.
Bragg considers himself a reformer
Bragg ran on a progressive platform, as part of a growing movement of prosecutors across the country using the powers of their offices to reshape the criminal legal system. He promised to balance fairness and safety, to address violent crime while also working to make the system more just.
Since taking over the DA’s office, Bragg has created several new units, including one focused on housing and tenant protections and one to prosecute wage theft.
Another division he created, called Pathways to Public Safety, aims to divert certain groups from the traditional criminal justice system and provide more services for them, including people struggling with mental illness and substance use disorder.
The Manhattan DA has also launched a Post-Conviction Justice Unit to examine old prosecutions that may have resulted in wrongful convictions. Last summer, the team’s re-investigation of the case against a sixth lesser-known man connected to the Central Park Five case led to his exoneration.
Critics have accused Bragg of being soft on crime
When Bragg took office, he sent a memo to his staff instructing them not to prosecute some low-level crimes, including resisting arrest and fare evasion. The memo also told prosecutors not to ask judges to set bail except in the most serious cases, for crimes like homicide and domestic violence felonies.
“These policy changes not only will, in and of themselves, make us safer; they will also free up prosecutorial resources to focus on violent crime,” Bragg wrote.
The memo quickly sparked criticism from police and some rank-and-file prosecutors, along with a flurry of news stories calling Bragg “soft on crime.” A month later, Bragg issued another memo to clear up “confusion” and clarify the office’s policies.
Bragg’s progressive policies put him at the center of New York’s contentious gubernatorial race last fall, when Republican candidate Lee Zeldin vowed to “fire him” on day one, if elected.
Zeldin criticized Bragg for bringing murder charges against a bodega worker who fatally stabbed someone during a confrontation — which he later dropped. Zeldin and other conservatives have also accused Bragg of making Manhattan less safe, though NYPD data show homicides and shooting incidents are down so far this year in the borough.
