Alvin Bragg makes history as Manhattan’s first ever Black district attorney

By Sonia Moghe, CNN

Alvin Bragg, a former New York state and federal prosecutor, has been elected Manhattan’s first Black district attorney in the history of the office.

Bragg, a former federal prosecutor with the criminal division of the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, defeated Republican Thomas Kenniff, a former prosecutor, JAG lawyer and Iraq war veteran.

Bragg spoke to supporters about what the historic win meant to him during a victory party in Harlem where he grew up.

“In addition to being the first Black district attorney, I think I’ll probably be the first district attorney who’s had police point a gun at him. I think I’ll be the first district attorney who’s had a homicide victim on his doorstop. I think I’ll be the first district attorney in Manhattan whose had a semi-automatic weapon pointed at him. I think I’ll be the first district attorney in Manhattan whose had a loved one reenter from incarceration and stay with him,” Bragg said at a victory speech Tuesday night. “And I’m going to govern from that perspective.”

When he won the heated democratic primary, Bragg said he was once a 15-year-old who was stopped “numerous times at gunpoint by police.” Now, as the head of one of the most prominent prosecutor’s offices in the nation, Bragg has said he is committed to ending racial disparities and mass incarceration, and campaigned on a promise not to prosecute certain low level crimes.

“I just knew from that early age, there would be a better way to protect people’s civil rights, and get a real sense of community based public safety,” Bragg told CNN in February. “I know how to get to true public safety. And I can assure folks that arresting people for things that have absolutely nothing to do with public safety do not make it safer.”

Bragg was most recently a chief deputy attorney general at the New York Attorney General’s Office where he says he helped sue the Trump administration more than 100 times, and led the team that sued the Donald J. Trump Foundation, resulting in Trump personally paying $2 million to an array of charities and the foundation being dissolved. Bragg also said he oversaw a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and his company that alleged a hostile work environment.

As Manhattan district attorney, Bragg will helm the first criminal case against Trump’s company, which was charged in June along with its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg in a 15-count indictment that alleged a scheme to defraud, among other charges. The former President was not charged.

In January, Bragg told radio show “Ebro in the Morning” he’s prepared to follow the facts in the case.

“I’ve seen him up front and have seen the lawlessness that he can do,” Bragg said in the interview. “I believe we have to hold him accountable. I haven’t seen all the facts beyond the public but I’ve litigated with him and so I’m prepared to go where the facts take me once I see them and hold him accountable.”

Bragg is currently one of the lawyers leading the charge in the judicial inquiry against New York City officials and New York Police Department officers on behalf of Eric Garner’s mother Gwen Carr about city officials handling of Garner’s death at the hands of a former NYPD officer, and whether or not the city appropriately investigated and disciplined officers involved. A judicial inquiry is a rarely used legal process for members of the public to look into alleged neglect of duty by public officials in New York City.

At his victory party on Tuesday night, Bragg said outgoing district attorney Cy Vance called him to congratulate him and that Vance has already proven to be a “tremendous partner in what I think is going to be a seamless transition.”

He would get to work, he said, on Wednesday and plans to focus first on getting guns off the street.

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