Search Results: letter

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3948984-gop-lawmakers-seek-to-cut-off-funding-to-bragg-other-prosecutors/
GOP lawmakers seek to cut off funding to Bragg, other prosecutors

A group of GOP lawmakers has introduced legislation that would bar any state or local prosecutor from using federal funds to investigate a president and singles out Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) office with a bill that would force it to return federal funding.

The legislation — the Accountability for Lawless Violence In our Neighborhoods Act or ALVIN Act — would require Bragg’s office to return all federal funding received since he took office.

According to Bragg’s office, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office receives about $630,000 annually and also has access to another $200,000 to use by 2024, through various grants designed to help local law enforcement combat crime.

But Bragg says under his tenure none has been spent on the prosecution or investigation of former President Trump.

In a letter to lawmakers in March, he detailed that about $5,000 was spent by his predecessor relating to investigations of the Trump organization.

However Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who spearheaded the legislation, cites federal funding as the impetus for the bill.

“This weaponized prosecutor’s office has spent thousands of federal taxpayer dollars to subsidize this political indictment and is demanding millions more in federal grants,” he said in a press release announcing the filing of the legislation.

“It’s disturbing to see District Attorney Bragg waste federal resources for political purposes rather than addressing the serious crime in his city.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/politics/e-jean-carroll-trump-lawyers-trial/index.html
Trump asks to delay sexual assault trial following historic indictment

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked a judge to delay the start of a sexual assault and defamation trial for one month to allow a “cooling off” period following the historic indictment charging Trump with falsifying business records.

Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Trump, asked the judge overseeing the battery and defamation lawsuit brought by former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll to delay the trial until the end of May. The trial is scheduled to start on April 25.

Tacopina said the pool of potential jurors will have the criminal charges “top of mind” when they are called due to intense media coverage and that could taint the jury pool. Trump was charged with falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels to stop her from going public about a past affair days before the 2016 presidential election. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“To be sure, President Trump is a persistent subject of media coverage. But the present situation is unique because, as stated above, the recent coverage pertains to alleged sexual misconduct, the same issue at the heart of this litigation,” Tacopina said in his letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Trump has denied the affair with Daniels. He has also denied sexually assaulting Carroll, who alleges Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. She first sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he denied the rape, said “she’s not my type” and alleged she made the claim to boost sales of her book.

https://news.yahoo.com/bragg-sues-jim-jordan-over-185559794.html?.tsrc=1026
Bragg sues Jim Jordan over ‘campaign to intimidate and attack’

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) sued House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) Tuesday, calling his investigation into Bragg’s prosecution of former President Trump a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” his office’s work.

The suit, filed in federal court in New York, is the most aggressive pushback yet from Bragg in response to Jordan, who in recent days subpoenaed a former prosecutor who worked on the Trump investigation and last week asked another employee to turn over personal emails about his hiring process.

“Congress has no power to supervise state criminal prosecutions. Nor does Congress have the power to serve subpoenas ‘for the personal aggrandizement of the investigators or to punish those investigated,’” Bragg’s office writes in the suit, pointing to a case initiated by Trump that ultimately limited Congress’s subpoena power.

Bragg has also resisted efforts from Jordan to secure his testimony, arguing in prior letters that Jordan’s requests would violate the rights of those involved in the process, including Trump himself.

“The charges the District Attorney filed against Mr. Trump were approved by citizens of New York,” the suit states.

“Rather than allowing the criminal process to proceed in the ordinary course, Chairman Jordan and the Committee are participating in a campaign of intimidation, retaliation, and obstruction.”

The suit earned a swift response from U. S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, who declined to immediately block Jordan’s subpoena but gave the committee just short of a week to respond in court.

Jordan started his own review of Bragg’s investigation just days after Trump predicted he would be arrested in connection with the probe and called on his supporters to protest.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-judge-family-receive-threats-233226748.html
Trump judge and his family receive threats after New York arrest

In the 24 hours since former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, the presiding judge and his family have received multiple threats, two sources familiar with the matter said.

One official said “dozens” of threats have recently been directed at Judge Juan Merchan and his chambers but did not give an exact time frame for them.

The other source said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other top officials in his office continue to receive threats. The threats have been in the form of calls, emails and letters.

The New York police detail assigned to the DA's office is providing extra security to all affected staff members. Court officers, meanwhile, are boosting security for the judge and the court as a whole as a precaution.

Other steps have been taken, as well. Online bios of employees at the Manhattan district attorney’s office were recently removed from the DA’s website, according to a source familiar with the matter, because of troubling posts on social media, including Trump’s Truth Social platform

Trump and his allies have publicly criticized Merchan and his family, including his adult daughter.

Ahead of his court appearance Tuesday, Trump blasted Merchan on his Truth Social account as a "highly partisan judge" and said the judge and his family are "Trump haters." In the post, Trump said, "HIS DAUGHTER WORKED FOR ‘KAMALA’ & NOW THE BIDEN-HARRIS CAMPAIGN.”
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NY Penal Law § 120.09
Assault on a judge. A person is guilty of assault on a judge when, with intent to cause serious physical injury and prevent a judge from performing official judicial duties, he or she causes serious physical injury to such judge. For the purposes of this section, the term judge shall mean a judge of a court of record or a justice court. Assault on a judge is a class C felony.