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DA Bragg Agrees to Appear at House Committee, Though Only After Trump is Sentenced [1]

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Date: 2024-06-08  

The New York Times posted this story yesterday — Alvin Bragg Agrees to Testify Before Congress About Trump Case (though I missed it until CNN wrote about it this morning):

Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted former President Donald J. Trump, agreed on Friday to testify before Congress as Republicans seek to discredit Mr. Trump’s conviction. But Mr. Bragg suggested his testimony would need to wait until after Mr. Trump is sentenced next month. Mr. Bragg, who had previously resisted congressional involvement in the case, indicated his willingness to testify in a letter to Representative Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who leads the House Judiciary Committee. Mr. Bragg’s office said the district attorney wanted to speak first with House Republicans to “better understand the scope and purpose of the proposed hearing.”

I don’t think Bragg should go before Congress at all. There is no federal issue here, neither legislative nor investigative. Jordan’s demands (as well as those of James Comer) are nothing but a way to try to harass and persecute anyone who dares to hold their sacred shithead (now their “scared shithead”) to account for the crimes he has committed. Bragg not only knows this, he made clear he knows this by asking for clarification on the “scope and purpose” of the proposed inquisition (yes, he called it a hearing, but we all know what it really is).

The Times worries about Bragg’s ability to cope with Jordan:

Mr. Bragg has not publicly responded to the attacks, nor has he granted interviews in the wake of the verdict. Mr. Bragg, a low-key career prosecutor, might be out of his element under the glare of a congressional grilling.

though it explains that:

[Bragg] is a deliberative pragmatist, and was most likely hesitant to flout the request altogether. If he had declined to testify, Mr. Jordan could have subpoenaed him and, ultimately, sought to hold him in contempt, a rebuke that a prosecutor would be loath to incur.

I really think the Times underestimates Alvin Bragg, who is, after all, a true New Yorker, meaning you do not want to mess with him. (I was a New Yorker for many years; we are tough.) Start with Bragg’s refusal to appear before the committee until after his work on the Trump election interference trial is complete. That means after the prosecutor’s office has made its sentencing recommendation and the judge has handed down the sentence. Until then, Gym Guy, you’ll just have to wait.

I also expect that, in his opening statement, Bragg will lay out his case just as he has done in the very few pressers he’s held. He will also explain that this sort of case — felony business record falsification — is the sort of case that the Manhattan DA’s office handles all the time. He will walk through the process slowly, carefully, deliberately, all while Gym Guy silently (let’s hope!) melts into a steaming pile of stink.

And Bragg will successfully resist all attempts to get under his skin, to make nasty remarks about his skin, to suggest that the Biden administration has skin in this game. (I think I stretched the skin, or at least the skin metaphor, a bit thin there.)

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