Alvin Bragg gets more than 100 threats in the three weeks after Trump’s conviction - more than all of 2023
COMBO-US-POLITICS-JUSTICE-TRUMP
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has received more than 100 threats and abusive messages in the weeks since his office finished convicting Donald Trump in the former president’s unprecedented hush money case, more than all the threats the prosecutor received in the previous year.
The threats, analyzed by the DA’s New York Police Department security detail and obtained by the New York Daily News, included messages filled with hateful racial slurs, and ominous comments like “Bragg in Trouble” and a messenger who sent an email from an address named ThisMeansWar.
The volume of aggression far outpaces what Bragg has faced previously, according to court filings. There were 89 threats against the DA in 2023, New York prosecutors disclosed as they sought a gag order in the Trump hush money case, up from just one threat prior to when Trump was indicted.
Throughout the prosecution of Donald Trump, which ended in May, Bragg, who is Black, has received a deluge of threats, many of them racist, including a package sent to his campaign mailbox with a cutout of him hung from a noose.
His office was also sent multiple envelopes with threatening messages and mysterious white powder during the hush money prosecution, including a letter that read, “ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU.”
In February 2023, a Utah man, Craig DeLeeuw, who made violent threats against Joe Biden and Alving Bragg, was killed in a firefight with FBI agents, who were visiting DeLeeuw’s Provo home to serve a search warrant.
DeLeeuw, 74, claimed online he would “be waiting in in the courthouse parking garage with my suppressed Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm,” a silenced gun, for Bragg.
The potential for threats against participants in the hush money prosecution was a key motivator for New York officials to seek a gag order against the former president.
This week, the New York Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s demand to repeal the gag order now that the trial is finished.
During the high-profile case Trump was fined $10,000 for 10 statements posted on Truth Social directed at witnesses and the jury during the trial, and the judge overseeing the trial threatened him with jail if he continued to violate the terms of the order.
Alex Woodward contributed reporting to this story.
From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.