NEW YORK — Five days before his criminal trial against former President Donald Trump, the top prosecutor in Manhattan sat across from the liberal Rev. Al Sharpton in a hotel conference room packed with fellow Democrats.
For 12 minutes, they talked — about growing up in Harlem, about teaching Sunday school and about fighting gun violence. But not once did District Attorney Alvin Bragg mention Trump to the MSNBC host. Not once did he bring up the biggest case he’s ever tried. And Sharpton had agreed not to ask.
“I only talk about that matter in court filings and in the court. That’s what we do,” Bragg said in a brief interview Wednesday as he left Sharpton’s National Action Network convention.
Unlike the others, Bragg faced incredible political pressure from his Democratic base to indict Trump. And now that the case is going to trial, the first-term DA is shying away from owning the prosecution. Bragg isn’t even planning on being in the courtroom every day, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was granted anonymity to discuss his plans.
At a time when the idea of an independent judiciary is under fire across the country — by those on both the left and right — Bragg is hoping to dull the criticism that he’s unfairly prosecuting Trump to hurt the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
