A Harlem bodega clerk who fatally stabbed an attacker and was initially charged with murder by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will be a star witness at a U.S. House hearing in New York highlighting violent crime in the city where Donald Trump is facing charges.
The Monday hearing at the Javits Federal Building — roughly a block away from the DA’s office in lower Manhattan — is the latest salvo in a battle between Trump’s political allies and Bragg, whose indictment against the former president was unsealed last week. Trump pleaded not guilty.
In releasing his initial witness list Wednesday, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan didn’t mention the legal back and forth between his committee and Bragg.
Also not mentioned is whether Bragg — who on Tuesday sued Jordan and the committee to stop its outside scrutiny of his Trump probe — will be called as a witness. Others, such as Mayor Eric Adams, were also not named.
A Jordan spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about whether Bragg or other witnesses might be called for the hearing, which Jordan said would focus on how Bragg’s policies “have led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents.”
The panel’s top Democrat, Jerrold Nadler of Manhattan, and other Democrats will also attend the hearing and challenge GOP questioning, a Nadler spokesman said Wednesday.
The witnesses include Jose Alba, the former bodega clerk, as well as Madeline Brame, the mother of Army veteran Hason Correa, who was murdered in Manhattan in 2018, before Bragg became DA. Brame has criticized Bragg for dismissing indictments against two people who she said were involved in her son’s murder.
Bragg’s charging of Alba, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, triggered an outcry last summer and demonstrations at City Hall. Alba was charged with second-degree murder for the killing of Austin Simon, 35, in the July 1 altercation.
A video recorded inside the bodega showed Simon’s girlfriend stabbing Alba in the arm with her knife. Alba then grabbed a knife and stabbed Simon when Simon hoisted him up by the collar.
Bragg later dropped the charges after concluding Simon had gone behind the counter and shoved Alba after an argument erupted. In dismissing the charges, Bragg’s office said it would be unable to prove Alba “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”
