Staff Reports
Republican Jim Jordan (Oh.) didn’t hold back in his feud with Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg on Monday at a field hearing on New York City’s crime surge. Jordan had invited victims of violent crime as witnesses while Democrats invited Third Way’s Jim Kessler to repeat talking points. Jordan’s message was loud and clear: Bragg is weaponizing the state to pursue a political vendetta against former President Trump, while ignoring actual victims of crime in his jurisdiction. Jordan accused Bragg of “weighing down the scales of justice with politics” in Manhattan.
I will continue to shine a light on the crime crisis in New York State, caused by Joe Biden, Kathy Hochul, and radical DAs like Alvin Bragg.https://t.co/QoqVtbRvll
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) April 19, 2023
Madeline Brame, who chairs the Victim Rights Council, spoke at the hearing and shared that Bragg’s office treated her family like “garbage” when dealing with her son’s murder. Meanwhile, Manhattan Democrat Jerry Nadler accused Jordan of “acting as an extension of the Trump defense team.” Nadler touted a 14 percent drop in murders last year, but overall crime surged 22 percent, and murders remain high at 433.
Bragg’s office retaliated with a tweet that compared New York to Democrat-led Columbus, Ohio. They claimed that in Bragg’s first year in office, New York City had one of the lowest murder rates of major cities in the United States at 5.2, nearly three times lower than that of Columbus, Ohio, at 15.4.
Democrats have been defending Bragg’s witch hunt against Trump with the phrase, “no one is above the law,” but Republicans have repeatedly pointed out the double standard in the justice system, especially in Trump’s case. Nonetheless, Bragg has deployed an unusual legal theory to charge Trump with 34 individual felony counts for “falsifying business records.”
Jordan has been leading an oversight probe of Bragg’s case, which is widely seen as politically motivated. Even liberals have criticized Bragg’s case as feeble, yet Bragg accuses Jordan of leading an “unconstitutional” attack on the rule of law. The hearing was a clear indication that New York City’s justice system is stacked against conservatives and Trump supporters. It is time to put a stop to Bragg’s political vendetta and bring justice to real victims of crime.
