Donald Trump can thank New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his signature role in convicting him on all 34 counts of a hush money trial involving former adult star Stormy Daniels.
Trump is now the first former American president to be convicted of a felony crime and Bragg is the first district attorney to convict a former United States president. With that, let’s look back at Bragg’s life and career.
Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr. was born October 21, 1973, in New York City and raised in Harlem.
After high school, Bragg decided to take his talents to the Ivy League and attended Harvel College. He majored in government and graduated cum laude in 1995.
After undergrad, Bragg continued his education, staying in Cambridge, Mass. and attending Harvard Law School, graduating in 1999.
Shortly after graduating from Harvard Law School, Bragg immediately got started on his legal career. He moved back to New York where he clerked for Robert P. Patterson Jr., who was a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.
In 2003, Bragg got married to Jamila Marie Ponton. They currently have two children together.
After he spent time as an associate at a local New York law firm, Bragg joined the office of then-Attorney General of New York Eliot Spitzer. He later served as chief of litigation and investigations at New York City Council for nearly six years.
In 2009, Bragg was appointed the assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where his mentor, Robert P. Patterson Jr., used to be the federal judge.
After eight years as the assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Bragg became the Chief Deputy Attorney General of New York in 2017. He was appointed by then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. During his time in this role, he oversaw lawsuits brought by the state against Harvey Weinstein and the Donald Trump Foundation.
Nearly a year after being appointed the Chief Deputy Attorney General of New York, Bragg took a break from the legal world and was hired as a professor at the New York Law School in Tribeca, New York City.
While he was a professor, Bragg also became the co-director of the Racial Justice Project, which is “a legal advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the constitutional and civil rights of people who have been denied those rights on the basis of race,” according to their website.
After a year as a professor, Bragg decided to step back into the legal world, starting his candidacy for the New York Country District Attorney in June 2019. In November 2021, he became the first Black person to be elected as the New York County District Attorney.
After just a few days in office, one of the first policies Bragg wanted to put into effect was to no longer prosecute low-level offenses such as prostitution, fare evasion and resisting arrest.
Originally hesitant to investigate Trump and his organization in early 2022, Bragg ultimately planned to move forward with the criminal investigation against the former president.
Bragg’s office charged former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon with defrauding United States citizens who wanted to contribute to the building a border wall between America and Mexico.
On May 30, Bragg became the first district attorney to convict a former United States president after Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of a hush money trial.
