House Republicans taking aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced plans Wednesday to put a pair of cases that weathered a firestorm of bad press for the DA on blast.
The GOP-led congressional Judiciary Committee, led by Trump-backing Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, plans to question Harlem bodega worker Jose Alba and the mother of slain Army veteran Hason Correa at a lower Manhattan hearing examining Bragg’s crime policies on Monday.
The announcement comes a day after Bragg’s office sued Jordan and his fellow committee members for an unprecedented “brazen and unconstitutional attack” on his office over its criminal indictment of ex-president Donald Trump.
Jordan’s hearing, which will happen at 26 Federal Plaza, where the FBI’s New York bureau and numerous federal law enforcement agencies are located, is named “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan.”
The committee said it wants to examine how Bragg’s “pro-crime, anti-victim policies” have led to an increase in violent crime, arguing he should be focusing on crime in NYC and not prosecuting Trump. The DA’s office in response has pointed to fresh NYPD data showing murders, shootings, robberies and burglaries are down.
Bragg dropped murder charges against Alba last summer, brought after Alba’s NYPD arrest on July 1 for fatally stabbing Austin Simon in his store. The deli clerk, 61, claimed he acted in self-defense when the 35-year-old attacked him behind the counter and received an outpouring of public sympathy when a video of the gruesome incident went viral.
Correa was stabbed to death in 2018. A woman convicted of holding him down during the attack, Mary Saunders, received a one-year prison term after taking a plea deal from Bragg’s office last May. The men who stabbed Correa, Saunders’ brothers Christopher and James, received life sentences.
Bragg faced a firestorm of negative stories for his handling of both cases, with right-wing politicians accusing him of going both too hard and too soft on crime. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate and Trump ally Lee Zeldin elevated the criticisms to a fever pitch in televised campaign ads last summer when he ran against Gov. Kathy Hochul in a tighter-than-expected race.
The committee also plans to call victims’ rights advocate and Bragg critic Jennifer Harrison. The attackers who killed her boyfriend and best friend in New Jersey 18 years ago received lenient terms in a New Jersey court.
Bragg’s office on Tuesday announced a bombshell Manhattan federal court lawsuit against the GOP committee, which started probing his Trump investigation on March 20 when it became clear Trump would be indicted.
The suit seeks to block the committee from subpoenaing former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz in Washington, D.C., on April 20.
Pomerantz led the Manhattan DA’s extensive Trump probe for about a year and wrote a book about it revealing confidential details after resigning in protest. Pomerantz’s February 2022 public resignation came after he and Bragg disagreed about the readiness of a Trump indictment, with Bragg wanting more time to investigate it, the Daily News reported.
A judge has ordered a hearing in the case a day before Pomerantz is set to testify.
Bragg’s office pointed to statements about Tuesday’s lawsuit and declined to comment on Wednesday’s announcement.
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