New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), the prosecutor behind charges against former President Donald Trump, has built a record of dropping felony charges, decreasing felony convictions, downgrading felonies to mere misdemeanors, and not bothering to request bail for suspects accused of felonies.
Bragg has only been in office since the beginning of 2022 — running on a promise to not prosecute suspects for marijuana misdemeanors, turnstile jumping, trespassing, driving with a suspended license, prostitution, resisting arrest for non-criminal offenses, and obstructing the work of the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
Though the establishment media has sought to distance Bragg from billionaire George Soros, the far-left prosecutor enjoyed major support from the Color of Change PAC in his 2021 bid. Soros gave the PAC some $1 million at the time and Soros’s relatives donated directly to Bragg.
In his short tenure as District Attorney of Manhattan, Bragg has helped weigh the city’s justice system overwhelmingly toward suspects over victims and law enforcement.
Downgrading Felony Charges
Data published last year revealed that Bragg’s office downgraded the majority, 52 percent, of felony cases to misdemeanors ensuring that suspects faced minor charges despite initially being accused of felonious crimes.
For comparison, just 39 percent of felony cases in Manhattan were downgraded to misdemeanors in 2019. Even as former District Attorney Cyrus Vance (D) advanced a far-left agenda, the number of felony cases downgraded to misdemeanors never exceeded 40 percent under his watch.
The skyrocketing number of felony charges downgraded to misdemeanors is in line with Bragg’s campaign promises.
Immediately after taking office, Bragg sent a memo to Manhattan District Attorney staff urging them to downgrade felony charges like armed robberies to misdemeanor petty larceny so that suspects will not spend more than a year in prison if convicted.
In one example from June 2022, Bragg offered a sweetheart deal to Marcus Wright who was initially charged with grand larceny after robbing almost $1,400 worth of merchandise from a boutique in downtown Manhattan.
Wright, who had 36 arrests on his criminal record at the time, was allowed to plead down to misdemeanor petty larceny and subsequently freed from police custody. Less than a month later, Wright was arrested for randomly punching a woman in the face. For the assault, Wright was freed without bail thanks to New York state’s bail reform law which Bragg supports.