Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dodged questions Thursday about Gov. Kathy Hochul revealing she will be watching the controversial prosecutor “very closely.”
“I’m on a call,” Bragg said Thursday morning as he exited a black SUV and entered his Lower Manhattan office while accompanied by security, when asked by a Post photographer if he felt threatened by Hochul’s comment. “I’m on a call, sorry.”
During a meeting with the New York Post editorial board on Wednesday, Hochul hinted that she is prepared to use unspecified “powers” to address Bragg’s progressive prosecutorial policies.
“I have options, but I will be monitoring the situation very closely,” she said. “I know full well the powers that the governor has — I’ll be having a conversation very shortly to convey, to let him tell me what his plans are and make sure that we’re all in alignment.”
The governor will meet with Bragg on Friday for the first time, she said. The two will speak at the governor’s Midtown office, a source previously told The Post.
Steven Hirsch
Also Wednesday, Bragg selected his office’s first prosecutor dedicated to curbing gun violence in the Big Apple. Peter Pope will serve the executive assistant district attorney for gun violence prevention, he announced.
Bragg — elected in November as Manhattan’s first black district attorney — has faced blowback from several prominent officials about his “Day One” memo sent to staff on Jan. 3 that directs prosecutors in his office to drop some misdemeanor cases, not seek bail or prison time for most defendants and to downgrade certain felonies to misdemeanors.
Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
New NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell has expressed fears that Bragg’s policies put cops and New Yorkers at risk, and local Republicans have backed various efforts to oust Bragg. In Bragg’s first weeks in office, at least nine prosecutors left the office amid the drastic changes.
After Bragg characterized his first two weeks in office as“challenging,” he turned to veteran New York public relations pro Risa Heller and former Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara for help quell the backlash.
He also met with Big Apple business elites, whose worries he was “extremely responsive” to, according to a leading advocate for large employers in the five boroughs.
Steven Hirsch
Despite the consternation his policies prompted, Bragg has held the line in his left-leaning policies, declaring during a recent virtual appearance at New York University School of Law that the controversial memo is still “operative.”
On Tuesday, a political artist created a fake crime scene outside Bragg’s office, in a “creative protest” against “woke DAs” and their criminal justice policies.