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A26 u.s. news
Diasabra 3 Juli 2021

Bragg’s opponent concedes in primary for Manhattan DA

who now teaches at New York The Manhattan district at- ings by police.
Law School, Bragg worked as torney’s office has spent two
a civil rights lawyer before years looking at Trump’s Campaigning for district at-
entering government service. business dealings. torney, Bragg pledged a cul-
He currently represents the ture change in the district
mother of Eric Garner in a A special grand jury this week attorney’s office, prioritizing
judicial inquiry into his 2014 indicted the Trump Organi- public safety and police ac-
death after being placed in a zation and its chief financial countability while declining
police chokehold. officer, Allen Weisselberg. to pursue many low-level of-
They were charged with fenses and de-emphasizing
Bragg said he was drawn to helping Weisselberg and oth- conviction rates.
a career in law after having a er top executives evade taxes
gun pointed at him six times he should have paid on apart- Bragg said he’d use data to
as a youth — three times by ments, cars and tuition aid spot racial disparities in the
police. In one encounter, given him by the company. criminal justice system. In
amid the crack cocaine epi- deciding which cases to pur-
(AP) — Alvin Bragg, a for- referring to the Manhattan demic of the 1980s, Bragg Trump himself was not sue, Bragg said he’d want
mer top deputy to New neighborhood where he grew said an officer stuck a gun in charged in the case, but the prosecutors to ask: “Does this
York’s attorney general, up. “And today, that 15-year his face and wrongly accused investigation is not over. case make us safer.”
was poised to become old boy who was stopped nu- him of being a drug dealer as
Manhattan’s first Black merous times at gunpoint by he walked to get groceries for Vance, the Democrat who Manhattan district attorney is
district attorney and to the police is the Democratic his father. brought the charges, will lead one of the most high-profile
take over the investigation nominee to be Manhattan the Trump probe until he prosecution jobs in the U.S.,
of former President Don- District Attorney.” Bragg, 47, defeated a big leaves office. dramatized on TV’s “Law and
ald Trump after his closest field of candidates that also Order” and “Blue Bloods.”
opponent conceded in the Bragg led Farhadian Wein- included three former assis- All of the Democrats run-
Democratic primary. stein by about 3 percentage tants in the district attorney’s ning for the office had said The office has a staff of 500
points when voting ended office, Lucy Lang, Liz Crot- they weren’t afraid of taking lawyers and a $125 million
The candidate trailing him by June 22. ty and Diana Florence, and on Trump, but they were also annual budget.
several thousand votes in the three candidates who have cautious not to appear as if
race, former federal prosecu- With a win, Bragg would be never been prosecutors — they were prejudging the case A separate forfeiture fund
tor Tali Farhadian Weinstein, virtually guaranteed to suc- public defender Eliza Orlins, or making the matter a cam- bankrolled by Wall Street
said in a statement Friday that ceed District Attorney Cyrus civil rights lawyer Tahanie paign issue. settlements and worth more
after several days of absentee Vance Jr., who has been lead- Aboushi and state Assembly than $800 million is used for
votes being counted, “it is ing an investigation of Trump member Dan Quart. Bragg has investigated Trump grants to criminal justice and
clear we cannot overcome and his company and is retir- before as the state’s chief community organizations
the vote margin.” ing at the end of the year. Farhadian Weinstein said that deputy attorney general in and big initiatives, such as
while she had disagreements 2018. He helped oversee a testing backlogged rape kits.
New York City’s Board of The Republican candidate in with Bragg, she supported his lawsuit that led to the closure
Election has not publicly re- the general election will be “commitment to justice.” She of Trump’s charitable foun- Vance will have been in office
leased updates on the count Thomas Kenniff, a defense also said she heard a “demand dation over allegations he for 12 years when he steps
of absentee ballots. As a re- attorney, former prosecutor for more women in political used the nonprofit to further side. His successor will be
sult, The Associated Press has and Army Judge Advocate leadership” while campaign- his political and business in- just the fourth elected district
been unable to call a winner. General. Democrats out- ing and hoped other would terests. attorney in Manhattan in the
number Republicans heavily heed that call. last 80 years. Frank Hogan
“This has been a long jour- in Manhattan. Prior to that, Bragg led a unit served for 31 years. Robert
ney that started in Harlem,” Manhattan has never had a of the state attorney general’s Morgenthau was in office for
Bragg said in a statement, A former federal prosecutor woman district attorney. office that investigates kill- 34 years, until he was 90.

Trump ally in Pennsylvania raises 2020 election audit plan

(AP) — Following in Senate Republicans have law firm’s response letter, Voting machines, ballots and has raised a concern over
the footsteps of Arizo- been mostly silent about their dated Tuesday, was obtained other election records could any sort of widespread elec-
na’s Senate Republicans, internal deliberations. by The Associated Press. be demanded. The process tion fraud in November’s
Pennsylvania’s Republi- Sen. Doug Mastriano, a ris- could cost millions of dollars. election in Pennsylvania, a
can-controlled Senate is ing force in Pennsylvania’s In the letter, the law firm dis- In Arizona, Senate Repub- crucial state that Democrat
considering an investiga- ultra-conservative circles cussed the legality of using licans kicked in $150,000 to Joe Biden won by more than
tion into how last year’s who has talked of his desire money from a private, non- help pay for the audit, but the 80,000 votes, or just over 1
presidential election was to bring an Arizona-style au- profit organization “to pay lead contractor, Cyber Nin- percentage point.
conducted, a quest fu- dit to Pennsylvania, led a pri- expenses for vendors, includ- jas, and Republicans won’t
eled by former President vate briefing Wednesday for ing a consultant and counsel” say who or what organiza- Trump’s efforts to overturn
Donald Trump’s baseless Republican senators on his as part of an “oversight inves- tions are funding the rest of Biden’s victory has been
claims that fraud was be- plan. tigation” of the 2020 election the operation or how much it roundly rejected by courts
hind his loss in the battle- led by the low-profile com- is costing. at every level, including by
ground state. In Arizona, the state Senate mittee that Mastriano chairs. judges appointed by the for-
used its subpoena power to Republican consideration of mer president. Trump’s at-
Any Senate-issued subpoenas take possession of more than Mastriano, who chairs the an election audit in Penn- torney general has also said
for an Arizona-style “election 2 million ballots and the ma- Senate Intergovernmen- sylvania comes as Trump there was no widespread
audit” will face strident op- chines that counted them, tal Operations Committee, supporters have pushed for fraud in the U.S. that would
position from Democrats, le- along with computer data. could theoretically issue sub- audits and reviews of ballots have changed the results of
gal questions and almost cer- poenas to counties with a ma- in political battlegrounds in a the election.
tainly challenges in Pennsyl- Mastriano also solicited legal jority vote of his committee. bid to turn up evidence that
vania’s courts, as battles over advice from a Philadelphia- The Democratic bastions of Biden’s victory was illegiti- She said she was not sure
election laws rage through based law firm about the Philadelphia and Allegheny mate. what the next step might be.
swing states and Congress, Senate Republican caucus us- County, home to Pittsburgh, But, she said, she wanted to
spurred on by Trump’s false- ing private money to finance could be prime targets. No county election board, ensure the cost is not borne
hoods. consultants and lawyers. The prosecutor or state official by state taxpayers.