Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a low-key figure. He doesn’t display the flash and charisma of other high-profile lawyers. On Thursday, he seemingly downplayed his role in bringing down Donald Trump after winning a unanimous jury verdict against the former president.
Yet, convicting Trump on all 34 felony counts was no easy task. Critics and legal experts predicted Bragg’s downfall for the enormous risks he took in pursuing this high-profile case. But in the end, the seasoned prosecutor made bold moves that earned him a place in history as the first prosecutor to indict and convict a former U.S. president.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict, in the same manner as every other case that comes to the courtroom doors by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor,” Bragg, the first Black Manhattan DA, told reporters about his office’s victory in the hush money case.
Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance, began investigating Trump in 2019 but ultimately declined to pursue criminal charges. Vance had concerns about applying “novel issues around using the false statements statute in connection with committing a crime that violates federal election laws,” according to MSNBC.
But in a bold move, Bragg went after Trump using the untested legal strategy. As The New York Times explains, charging Trump only with falsifying company records would be a misdemeanor. To elevate the charges to a felony, Bragg’s team had to prove that financial records were falsified to commit another crime: violating state or federal election laws.
That’s precisely what Trump did when he falsified business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, Bragg argued.
Bragg, a son of Harlem, raised eyebrows after indicting Trump in April 2023 in what many experts said was a weak case and a legal embarrassment. Still, Bragg was the first prosecutor to criminally indict the former president, ahead of pending state and federal criminal cases in Florida, Georgia and the District of Columbia.
Undaunted, the Harvard Law School graduate displayed nerves of steel by placing Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, on the witness stand. Cohen is a disbarred lawyer who served jail time. He had credibility issues, to say the least, but knew all of Trump’s dirty secrets.
After a relatively short deliberation over two days, the Manhattan jurors returned a stunning unanimous verdict that sent shockwaves nationwide and catapulted Bragg into the constellation of superstar lawyers.
A furious Trump called the trial “a disgrace,” and claimed that it “was rigged.” No doubt, Trump’s allies will have many nasty things to say about Bragg on Sunday political talk shows.
But in the face of criticism, Bragg said the “only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.”
There is more work ahead for Bragg. At the press conference, he declined to comment on whether he will ask the judge for a prison sentence at the July 11 sentencing hearing. Each of the 34 felony charges carries a four-year prison sentence. Bragg’s team also faces aggressive appeals from Trump’s team. But he’s up to the task.