House Committee Holds Hearing on NYC Crime Crisis Under DA Bragg

The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee began holding a hearing Monday on what Republicans are calling Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “pro-crime, anti-victim politics” — after a preemptive rebuttal from Democrats dismissing the move as a “sham.”

The field hearing, titled “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,” is taking place near the offices of Manhattan’s top prosecutor, who charged former President Donald Trump with 34 felony counts of business fraud earlier this month.

Rep. Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican who is on the committee, last week tweeted that Bragg “turned NYC into a wasteland” and “lawlessness is completely out of control.”

But Democrats say the hearing is nothing more than a partisan stunt orchestrated by the leader of the House panel, Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and staunch Trump ally, to get back at Bragg for the ex-president’s indictment.

As Bragg arrived to work at his nearby office Monday morning, he ignored reporters’ questions about the controversial congressional hearing.

Protesters, mostly against the hearing but some in support, packed the hall outside the committee’s venue on the sixth floor of the Javits Federal Building at 26 Federal Plaza.

The demonstrators started chanting shortly after Jordan kicked off the session, distracting from his opening statement.

They were heard yelling, “indict Jim Jordan!” and brandished signs that read: “Jim Jordan Traitor”; “34 felonies”; “Jim Jordan insurrectionist” and “Jim Jordan Sleazy Liar.”

One supporter found her way into the center of the anti-hearing protest wearing a t-shirt that read “America, America America” in red, white and blue and yelled, “Jim Jordan is a patriot!”

Shortly before the hearing got under way, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes central Manhattan, held a fiery press briefing condemning the event as a political stunt.

“The House Judiciary Committee will convene what the chairman calls a field hearing,” Rep. Nadler told reporters. “It may have some of the trappings of a hearing — it will have opening statements, witnesses, and the members will ask questions — but don’t be fooled, this is not a serious exercise. This is a political stunt.

“This hearing is being called for one reason and one reason only, to protect Donald Trump,” Nadler fumed, slamming the session as an “outrageous abuse of power.”

The Democrat argued that Jordan and his GOP colleagues — “acting as an extension of the Trump defense team” — are trying to intimidate Bragg under the guise of holding a discussion about violent crime in New York City, which he touted as “one of the safest big cities in America.”

Nadler rattled off statistics which he said demonstrated that Bragg and Adams’ policies have resulted in crime rates decreasing “in nearly every major category” — and accused Jordan of staging a piece of political theater to defend Trump “by any means necessary.”