Documents Show Bragg Spent $1M on Lawyers into Trump Case . Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request have revealed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office spent a staggering $1 million on outside counsel to respond to congressional oversight of his prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
This appropriation was made at a time when New York City was facing significant budget cuts and a crisis in crime, economic growth, and migrant influx.
The documents, procured through litigation by the Oversight Project, a good-government transparency arm of the Heritage Foundation, show that Bragg’s office hired the high-powered law firm Gibson Dunn to respond to congressional inquiries from Rep. Jim Jordan and others. The firm was selected from among five solicited law firms, and its engagement letter was signed by Bragg himself.
Critics argue that Bragg’s allocation of funds for this purpose is a gross misuse of resources, particularly when the city is facing pressing issues like crime and economic growth. Attorney Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, stated that Bragg should be “arresting himself” instead of prosecuting Trump. “It speaks to the fact that Bragg had to go outside [the district attorney’s office] for this sort of work; very similar to how he had to have [prosecutor Matthew] Colangelo come down from DOJ,” Howell said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“Due to this unanticipated need, $1,000,000 will be made available for this matter from the DANY Deficit Project under the UniCredit subfund,” the memo read.
The findings suggest a focus on political persecution over addressing the city’s problems. Howell also noted that the documents depict an environment where the political left is expending more resources to prosecute Trump than the right is to defend him. “You have [Mayor Eric Adams] telling folks to cut back and focus on crime problems, and then you have a DA spending more and focusing on political persecution as New York City goes to hell,” he said.
The revelations have sparked outrage, with attorney Mike Davis calling it a “scandal” and criticizing Bragg’s office for weaponizing and politicizing the DA’s office to target Trump. “Instead of spending money fighting real crime in New York City, Alvin Bragg and Matthew Colangelo weaponized and politicized the DA’s office to get Trump and line the pockets of their allies,” said Davis, president of the Article III Project.
The documents also raise questions about the role of the Justice Department in Bragg’s prosecution of Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied any involvement in the prosecution, but the documents suggest otherwise. “It shows the highest focus of this unique kind of ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach as applied to President Trump, while they have just degeneracy, deviancy, and crime in their streets,” Howell said.
The matter is ongoing, with future FOIA hearings scheduled to uncover more information about Bragg’s office’s behavior and alleged communications with Washington, D.C. political operatives. Howell hopes that the documents will lead Congress to double its efforts to fight ongoing “lawfare” on the left and offered one reported example that House Republicans could access “reserve funds” from the now-defunct House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack to appropriately resource such efforts.
