Video of a roundtable discussion with several progressive prosecutors hosted at Harvard University last November resurfaced after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg controversially indicted former President Trump on 34 felony charges.
The panel, “Change from Within: A New Vision for the 21st Century Prosecutor,” hosted prominent Left-wing prosecutors from all over the country, and the discussion centered on the various methods current and aspiring prosecutors could use to fundamentally alter the justice system from the inside.
Bragg was scheduled to attend the panel, but opted out at the last minute due to developments in “an important case in Manhattan involving the Trump Organization,” according to the moderator, a reference to the case that would ultimately lead to the aforementioned indictment. The remark drew broad smiles from the entire panel.
Bragg has drawn fire, even from New York’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, for his low conviction rate, baffling prosecutorial priorities, and lax approach to law enforcement. “Major crime” increased in New York City by 22% after his first year in office. Critics have argued that activist prosecutors in major cities across the country are driving a significant spike in crime, but Bragg’s colleagues on the panel shared the motivation of their policies with startling clarity.
“I went to law school because I wanted to dismantle the criminal legal system, and thought that that’s the best way to do it,” Sarah George, State’s Attorney for Chittenden County, Vermont, said.
George explained that she had initially wanted to become a defense attorney, but while pursuing a master’s degree in forensic psychology, she became convinced that pursuing a political career as a prosecutor would be the best way to remedy the “injustices in our justice system.” George then said that after being elected, she was able to fire more hardline prosecutors who “were harming our community” and replace them with attorneys who supported “doing things differently.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, who helms one of the largest DA offices in the country and oversees about 550 prosecutors, was equally explicit about his views on law enforcement.
“The most powerful thing that prosecutors, elected prosecutors can do is not charge everybody,” Gonzalez said. “I will refuse to prosecute certain cases and I will turn the person who’s been arrested back over to the community for programming and therapy.”
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Gonzalez favored limiting incarceration and cash bail to the greatest possible extent.
“The practice had always been to ask for the maximum period [of parole],” Eric Gonzalez said. “The practice became to ask for the minimum unless there was a reason to do otherwise. Same thing for bail. It was the practice of our office to ask for bail on virtually every case, and I changed the practice to say that if you are going to ask for bail, you need to get a supervisor’s permission.” Gonzalez also rescinded all letters from the Brooklyn District attorneys from the last several decades opposing inmates’ parole.
“Besides describing themselves as so-called progressive prosecutors, the one thing that all of these district and state attorneys have in common is they seek to reimagine the role of the district attorney to the point where they undermine duly enacted laws passed by their respective state legislatures,” said Jonathan Hullihan, deputy general counsel for Citizens Defending Freedom. “This not only undermines the entire criminal justice system and places the progressivism above public safety, but also the separation of powers, and often the Constitutional oath of office required by public officials.”
Bragg’s decision to upgrade Trump’s charges of falsifying business records from a misdemeanor to felony has come under considerable public scrutiny. Bragg has argued that the falsification was committed to cover up federal campaign finance violations, which are not within his authority to prosecute and was not included in the indictment. Bragg has also employed a novel legal theory to circumvent the usual statute of limitations of five years. Considering that Bragg has downgraded more than half of all felony charges, including armed robbery, to misdemeanors, many have argued that his uncharacteristically harsh approach to Trump’s case is politically motivated.
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