Trump allies take combat to Bragg’s yard with listening to on NYC crime – Alokito Mymensingh 24
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s congressional allies have taken the combat to Manhattan, the place they’re internet hosting an on-site listening to to assault District Legal professional Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, for being weak on crime — all a part of the Republican technique to spice up America’s historic prosecution undermine earlier President.
Led by Chairman Jim Jordan, the highly effective Home Judiciary Committee will hear victims of violent crime Monday as Republicans argue Bragg dropped the ball on public security to concentrate on prosecuting Trump. Bragg’s workplace has defended the Trump probe, pointing to new information displaying crime in Manhattan has dropped considerably.
The high-profile listening to marks one other escalation within the ongoing battle between Bragg and Trump and his key allies on Capitol Hill.
Bragg introduced this month {that a} Manhattan grand jury had indicted Trump over a hush-money scheme to silence grownup movie star Stormy Daniels throughout his profitable 2016 presidential marketing campaign. On April 4, Trump pleaded not responsible to 34 counts of forging New York enterprise information.
Trump and different Republicans have branded the Manhattan investigation and indictment as a politically motivated witch hunt aimed toward harming the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidency.
Jordan, R-Ohio and different chairmen of the Home GOP committee have launched their very own investigations into Bragg’s probe into Trump, asking prosecutors to testify earlier than Congress, a request Bragg has declined. Jordan has additionally subpoenaed former New York County Assistant District Legal professional Mark Pomerantz, who led the DA’s workplace investigation into Trump’s funds earlier than resigning final yr.
Bragg, who has obtained a number of loss of life threats, responded final week by suing Jordan to let the courts block the subpoenas, calling the congressional probe an “unconstitutional try, ongoing prosecution and investigation into New York crimes” in opposition to Trump undermine.
Now Jordan and the Republicans are internet hosting a congressional listening to centered on Bragg, proper in his yard, within the Javits Federal Constructing.
Protesters outdoors the listening to held indicators calling Jordan a “traitor” and an “rebel” and chanted, “Let the general public in!”
Elise Stefanik, chair of the Home GOP convention, a New York Republican and a key Trump ally, is just not a member of the judiciary and doesn’t symbolize the New York Metropolis area, however attended the listening to.
“As New Yorkers proceed to really feel unsafe and are leaving the town and state in file numbers,” Stefanik mentioned forward of the listening to, “I sit up for holding Democrats accountable for his or her failure to prosecute crimes and as a substitute addressing myself.” partaking in unlawful political witch hunts in opposition to their political opponents.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler, DN.Y., the senior member of the Home Judiciary Committee, known as the listening to “a political stunt” to “defend Donald Trump” throughout a news convention earlier Monday.
“Jim Jordan and his Republican accomplices are appearing as an extension of the Trump protection workforce, attempting to intimidate the duly elected Manhattan district legal professional and forestall him from doing the work his constituents elected him to do,” Nadler mentioned, calling the listening to “a egregious abuse of energy.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has stirred up some on the left along with his strategy to coping with crime, mentioned on the identical press convention “Welcome to America’s most secure large metropolis.” He known as on the GOP to carry up gun security laws and an appointment to the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau.
“We have to concentrate on the best way to take care of the gun violence that’s choking America and let the prosecutor do his job,” Adams mentioned.
Among the many witnesses is Jose Alba, a former Harlem bodega worker whom Bragg’s workplace charged with second-degree homicide and despatched to Riker’s Island jail after fatally stabbing a person who jumped behind the counter and Alba final July had attacked. Alba had claimed self-defense. And after an outcry from New York Mayor Eric Adams and others, Bragg dropped the homicide cost, in accordance with NBC New York.
Different witnesses embody Madeline Brame, Chair of the Victims Rights Reform Council established in honor of her murdered son; and Jennifer Harrison, founding father of Victims Rights NY, whose boyfriend was fatally stabbed outdoors a New Jersey membership in 2005. Harrison’s group’s web site accommodates a petition calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to make use of her energy to “hearth Alvin Bragg.”
“The harmful, pro-crime agendas of far-left prosecutors like Alvin Bragg are destroying lives and communities throughout the nation,” mentioned Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, a member of the GOP management and Judiciary Committee who will attend Monday’s listening to.
Bragg’s workplace has pushed again, calling New York Metropolis “the most secure large metropolis in America” and highlighting information from the New York Metropolis Police Division displaying violent crimes have been down within the first quarter of 2023 in comparison with Manhattan a yr in the past.
Homicides are down 14%, shootings are down 17% and burglaries are down 21% within the county, in accordance with the New York Metropolis Police Division.
“In DA Bragg’s first yr in workplace, New York Metropolis had one of many lowest murder charges of any main metropolis in america (5.2), practically thrice decrease than Columbus, Ohio (15.4),” Bragg’s workplace mentioned.
“If Chairman Jordan actually cared about public security, he may take a brief journey to Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron or Toledo in his house state as a substitute of driving a whole bunch of miles of detours with taxpayers’ cash.”
