Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Alvin Bragg gets more than 100 threats in the three weeks after Trump’s conviction - more than all of 2023

Manhattan DA faced threats throughout prosecution of Trump which saw former president convicted of 34 felony charges related to hush money payments

Josh Marcus
San Francisco
Thursday 20 June 2024 20:17 EDT
Comments
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg speaks on Trump's guilty verdict: 'I did my job'

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

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.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in