NEW YORK — Donald Trump could be the first president — former or current — to be indicted this week if a grand jury finds grounds to bring the case to trial.
The former real estate mogul and one-term president is the subject of a new investigation which began in January when a jury began hearing new testimony.
But who is the man leading this investigation?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, inherited the year-old Trump investigation when he took office in January 2022 and quickly faced criticism, not from Trump, but remaining prosecutors for backing down on his predecessor plans to indict the former president on charges related to commercial fraud.
However, Bragg secured convictions for Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, and its longtime chief financial officer for an unrelated tax evasion scheme before moving on to what he called the “next chapter” of the investigation, which has brought new scrutiny to the silent money payments, which have been the subject of repeated investigations at the federal and state levels over the past six years.
Bragg, 49, took office 15 months ago amid what he calls a ‘perfect storm’ of rising crime and political pressure, as well as internal disputes he faced over the leadership of the Trump investigation.
A former Harvard-educated federal prosecutor, assistant state attorney general and civil rights attorney, Bragg came equipped with legal and managerial credentials but little experience in New York politics.
His good faith in the courtroom includes prosecuting a rogue FBI agent and overseeing the prosecution of Trump when he was a senior official in the state attorney general’s office. His life experience includes growing up in Harlem during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and being held at gunpoint six times, three times by police.
A criminal investigation focuses on payments made in 2016 to women who claimed to have had sex with former President Donald Trump.
But soon after taking office, Republicans and some centrist Democrats called Bragg soft on crime for a “day one” memo he sent to staff outlining his philosophy on prosecuting, or non-prosecution of certain crimes. Among other things, he said the district attorney would no longer prosecute certain petty crimes, including evading subway tickets and possession of marijuana.
Former Republican Representative Lee Zeldin campaigned for governor last year in part on a promise to impeach an independently elected Bragg. Bragg’s harsh criticism became so rancid, and at times racist, that his friends worried for his safety.
The New York Post put Bragg on the front page 13 times in his first year in office, including five times in his first month, with mocking headlines like “Happy 2022, Criminals!”
It became common for a Post photographer to attack Bragg with questions every morning when he arrived at the DA’s office, which he often ignored. The truth was that certain types of crime were up in Manhattan in 2022, but compared to the year before there were fewer murders and shootings.
Inside the district attorney’s office, Bragg faced disagreement over the direction of the Trump investigation, complaints that aired again last month in a book by former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz.
In 2021, Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., cleared Pomerantz and another senior official, Carey Dunne, to seek an indictment on charges that Trump overstated the value of his assets in the states. funds he had provided to the lenders. Vance left office before the case was completed, leaving the decision on the charges to Bragg.
Bragg decided not to proceed immediately, citing concerns about the strength of the case. In a recent statement, he said, “Pomerantz’s plane was not ready to take off.”
The delay led to Pomerantz and Dunne resigning, which led to speculation that Bragg had dropped out of the lawsuit against Trump.
Bragg refuted this in a rare public statement last April, writing, “In the long and proud tradition of white-collar prosecutions at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, we fully investigate and follow the facts without fear or favor.”
Bragg, an attorney who prefers to let the work speak for itself, declined to comment publicly on the status of the investigation into Trump’s secret money or explosive missives. His office also declined to comment.