OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A roughly two-year-old video of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has resurfaced, raising questions about prior comments he made regarding former President Donald Trump.
During a January 2021 radio interview with Ebro Darden on HOT 97, which took place when he was running in the election to be the Manhattan district attorney, Bragg boasts about helping “sue the Trump administration over 100 times,” said “rich old white men” need to be prosecuted, and said he had “seen the lawlessness than he [Trump] can do.”
Throughout the interview, Bragg talked about how he would handle an investigation into possible criminal activity by Trump if he were elected district attorney.
Below is a partial transcript of the 2021 interview:
Bragg, Jan. 15, 2021: I’m the candidate in the race who has the experience with Donald Trump. I was the chief deputy in the attorney general’s office. We sued the Trump administration over 100 times, for the Muslim travel ban, for family separation at the border, for shenanigans with the census. So I know how to litigate with him. I also led the team that did the Trump Foundation case. So I’m ready to go wherever the facts take me, and to inherit that case. And I think, you know, it’d be hard to argue with the fact that that’d be the most important, most high-profile case. And I’ve seen him up front, and seen the lawlessness that he can do.
Ebro: And you believe it should happen?
Bragg: I believe we have to hold him accountable. I haven’t seen all the facts beyond the public. But I’ve litigated with him, so I’m prepared to go where the facts take me once I see them, and hold him accountable. …
Ebro: So Alvin, you said leading you where the facts may lead you with regard to dealing with Donald Trump. From what you know today, and you know, I know you are being careful with your words because you’re running for office, so I respect that, but I know as a voter and a taxpayer, all I know is some of the things I’ve seen would’ve put me in jail. So, how is it not going to put someone at his level in jail? Now I know the answer is he’s an old white man and he’s got a lot of money. And he was just coming out of the office of president. But that doesn’t sit well with me as a citizen of the United States, and a resident of, you know, this area.
Bragg: No doubt. You’re right. So I’m being careful not so much for running for office, but because every case does have to be judged on its facts and I don’t know all the facts, right? And so I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years so I want to be fair. But with that said there’s a lot that’s out there publicly. You know, I look at what the attorney general’s looking at as a civil case, which could become a criminal case if the Manhattan DA’s office, where on the one hand he’s saying, “Hey, look, this piece of land is worth a dollar when I want to go pay taxes on it, but when I want to go get a loan, all of a sudden it’s worth a million.” Right?
Ebro: But that’s public information that he did that.
Bragg: And so what I’m saying, that’s why I’m focusing on that. That kind of conduct right there could definitely be the basis for a case. You know, I’ve done a mortgage fraud case. I’ve gone to trial. You know, I’ve done a tax fraud case. That kind of conduct right there is deeply troubling. And that’s what I’m thinking about when I say, you know, holding him accountable. So yeah, there … You are right, we’ve got two standards of justice. Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein. Being a rich old white man has allowed you to evade accountability in Manhattan. That includes Trump and his children. They were engaged in fraud in a SOHO real estate deal as children. So you’re right, we’ve got two standards of justice. I grew up in the second standard in Harlem. I know all about it. And you’re right, I’m being a little careful because I don’t want to prejudge and then I get into office and the first motion I get from the Trump team is I’ve got to recuse myself because I prejudged the facts. But you’re right, there’s a lot out there in the public domain that is so troubling. And I say that not just as someone who’s watching it but as someone who’s done these kind of cases, someone who’s litigated with Donald Trump about fraud and, by the way, won. We held him accountable in the Trump Foundation case. My office did the Trump University case. So I’ve seen a pattern of lawlessness over 20 years. And so I am inclined to believe all I see in the public domain, and … believe that there’s a path forward there to make a case.
WATCH:
The latest developments come after former President Donald Trump appeared in Manhattan on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Bragg.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges regarding allegations that he falsified business records related to adult film star Stormy Daniels’ hush-money case.
Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in a case involving his purported role in hush money payments to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, allegedly to keep Daniels quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.
