On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee released an interim staff report titled, “An Anatomy of a Political Prosecution: The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s Vendetta Against President Donald J. Trump.” The report reveals how the New York County District Attorney’s Office’s (DANY) investigation and prosecution of President Trump is the product of prosecutorial focus on one individual in search of a crime.
As revealed in former Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz’s self-serving book, People vs. Trump: An Insider’s Account, since at least 2018, the DANY has weaponized the criminal justice system, scouring every aspect of President Trump’s personal life and business affairs in the hopes of finding some legal basis—however far-fetched, novel, or convoluted—to bring charges against him. When one legal theory would not pan out, instead of discontinuing its politically motivated investigation, the DANY simply pivoted to a new theory, constantly searching for a crime prosecute President Trump. Pomerantz’s book was part of a public pressure campaign to force District Attorney Alvin Bragg into action.
In April 2023, District Attorney Bragg succumbed to Pomerantz’s pressure campaign, charging President Trump with 34 felony counts using a novel and untested legal theory that bootstrapped misdemeanor allegations as a felony. The timing and basis for the DANY’s prosecution of President Trump provide a clear inference that Bragg is motivated by political calculations. The facts at the center of Bragg’s political prosecution had not changed since 2018 and no new witnesses had emerged. Federal prosecutors already declined to pursue the case, and Bragg’s predecessor Cyrus Vance also waved off the case. Bragg, too, was initially reluctant to bring the case. The only intervening factor, it appears, was President Trump’s announcement that he would be a candidate for President in 2024.
In addition to the novel and untested legal theory, Bragg’s case relies heavily on the testimony of his star witness, Michael Cohen—a convicted perjurer with a demonstrable prejudice against President Trump. Cohen has been convicted of lying to Congress and DANY prosecutors were rightly concerned about his serious credibility problems.
Against the backdrop of District Attorney Bragg’s decision to find any reason to prosecute President Trump are Bragg’s actions to institute pro-crime, anti-victim policies that allowed violent crime to surge by 23 percent during his first year as DA and created a dangerous community for New York City residents.
The fundamental mission of any prosecutor’s office is to uphold the rule of law. And one of the hallmarks of this mission is to ensure that justice is blind—applied fairly and equally. Bragg’s politically motivated prosecution of President Trump threatens to destroy this notion of blind justice by using the criminal justice system to attack an individual he disagrees with politically, and, in turn, erodes the confidence of the American people.
Read the full interim staff report here.
