Alvin Bragg blows out Democratic challenger in Manhattan DA primary
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg defeated his moderate challenger to secure the Democratic nomination to serve another term in his post on Tuesday.
Bragg, a noted legal adversary of President Donald Trump, defeated Patrick Timmins, who had run on a more moderate platform. Timmins had criticized Bragg for failing to prosecute certain crimes, and his campaign highlighted the case of a repeat offender making a targeted attack against two court officers.
Bragg, who won Tuesday’s primary with over 70% of the vote, had secured a conviction against Trump prior to his re-election to the White House in November. Bragg’s office filed a legal brief calling on Justice Juan Merchan to put Trump’s conviction on ice until after his second term.
“President-elect immunity does not exist. And even after the inauguration, defendant’s temporary immunity as the sitting President will still not justify the extreme remedy of discarding the jury’s unanimous guilty verdict and wiping out the already-completed phases of this criminal proceeding,” the Tuesday court filing from Bragg’s office states.
Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Manhattan case in May 2024. Bragg’s office worked to prove that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
BRAGG CASE ‘EFFECTIVELY OVER’ IN ‘MAJOR VICTORY,’ TRUMP OFFICIALS SAY
Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and repeatedly railed against it as an example of lawfare promoted by Democrats in an effort to hurt his election efforts ahead of November.
Bragg’s office acknowledged that Trump cannot be sentenced as president but argued Merchan has various options to keep the case on ice until 2029 and sentence Trump following his second presidential administration.
“[N]o principle of immunity precludes further proceedings before defendant’s inauguration. And even if judgment has not been entered at the time of defendant’s inauguration, there is no legal barrier to deferring sentencing until after defendant’s term of office concludes,” the filing said.
The DA’s office argued that a stay of proceedings in the case would exempt the former and upcoming president “from any immediate obligations in this case during his time in office, while at the same time respecting the public interest in upholding the rule of law and preserving the meaningful aspects of the criminal process that have already taken place.” The DA’s office had already called for a stay in the case following the election, with Tuesday’s filing doubling down on that argument.
“To be sure, the People do not dispute that presidential immunity requires accommodation during a President’s time in office. But the extreme remedy of dismissing the indictment and vacating the jury verdict is not warranted in light of multiple alternative accommodations that would fully address the concerns raised by presidential immunity,” their filing said.
Merchan ultimately sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge, essentially imposing no punishment: no jail time, fines or probation. The sentence also preserves Trump’s ability to appeal the conviction.
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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