OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul is teeing off on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over the indictment of former President Donald Trump, declaring that Bragg could be forced out of office and into court himself.
“Wonder if DA Bragg remembers Durham DA Mike Nifong who withheld exculpatory DNA tests on the Duke lacrosse players. He was subsequently forced out of office, disbarred, and convicted of contempt of court,” Paul said, referring to Nifong, the district attorney in the 2006 case accusing Duke University lacrosse players of rape. The three players were exonerated and Nifong even spent one day in jail.
“A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail,” Paul said in a separate statement just before news late last week about the indictment.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared that Congress will take action after former President Donald Trump appeared in Manhattan on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin 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.
“Alvin Bragg is attempting to interfere in our democratic process by invoking federal law to bring politicized charges against President Trump, admittedly using federal funds, while at the same time arguing that the peoples’ representatives in Congress lack jurisdiction to investigate this farce. Not so. Bragg’s weaponization of the federal justice process will be held accountable by Congress,” McCarthy tweeted.
Earlier this week, a former New York City police commissioner laid the blame for the escalation of crime and violence in the city squarely at the feet of Bragg.
In an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly praised Republicans for holding field hearings just down from Bragg’s office in the city earlier this week and claiming that the DA “is a major contributor to” the rising crime rates.
“I liked the hearing. I liked the fact that victims of crime can speak directly to politicians. They avoid that as much as they possibly can. But yes, Chairman Jordan (R-OH) was right on target as far as police officers being treated with such disrespect throughout the country,” he told Maria Bartiromo.
“[Y]ou walk along the streets of New York, you can see how much the quality of life has deteriorated. And that’s why people are leaving. It’s right there. You can see it plain as day,” he added.
Bartiromo responded: “To what do you attribute that to, the increase in crime and the resignation increase?”
“Well, I attribute it to the administration, certainly, the administration of Bill de Blasio. He set the tone, so to speak. Mayor [Eric] Adams has not done the things, in my opinion, that would significantly reduce crime, bring back the anti-crime units, do stop, question, and frisk in a more active way,” Kelly continued.
“I think he’s trying to get the subways back. But that’s another — that’s a challenge. So, I think it really has to do with — certainly, Alvin Bragg is a major contributor to this because the other district attorneys in New York City follow the lead of the Manhattan district attorney,” Kelly said.
WATCH:
Meanwhile, a federal judge has rejected Bragg’s request to block a former prosecutor in his office from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee about the criminal case against former President Donald Trump.
“The committee and its chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), had subpoenaed ex-assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz to give testimony about the DA’s investigation into Trump, 76, that culminated in the former president’s indictment in March. Bragg filed suit against Jordan and the Judiciary Committee, claiming the subpoena was an overreach by the GOP-led House and an attempt to influence a state criminal proceeding,” the New York Post reported.
“But Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil found the subpoena was issued with a valid legislative purpose and that it was not the federal judiciary’s role to dictate how Congress operates,” the report continued.
