Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Leonard Bragg, Jr. made history in 2023 with the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump for crimes committed in relation to his 2016 Presidential campaign.
Born in the Manhattan borough of New York on October 21, 1973, Bragg grew up in Harlem’s historic landmark section of Strivers’ Row. His parents are Dr. Sadie Chavis Bragg and Alvin Leonard Bragg, Sr., from South Hill, Virginia. He is a civil rights activist and assistant superintendent for welfare in New York City’s Human Resources Administration.
Bragg, Jr.’s education began in 1977 at Trinity School in the Upper West Side. There, he was a three-sport athlete and a student government member. Bragg also wore the costume of the school’s Tiger mascot.
After high school graduation, he enrolled at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in government. He entered Harvard Law School in 1995, earned his doctorate in 1999, and was an editor of the Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review. He also served as President of the Black Students Association. Bragg clerked for former U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr. in the Southern District of New York and later was hired as an associate for the Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Jason & Anello law firm.
Bragg was New York state’s chief deputy attorney general from 2017 to 2018, where he headed the Criminal Justice and Social Justice divisions. After that, he became co-director of the Racial Justice Project and Visiting Professor at the New York Law School.
In the November, 2021 election, Democrat Bragg won the race for Manhattan District Attorney, becoming the first African American to do so after defeating his Republican challenger, Thomas Kenniff. He was sworn in as the 37th District Attorney in Manhattan in 2022, replacing Cy Vance, Jr.
As Manhattan District Attorney, Bragg established a Special Victims Division that includes the Domestic Violence, Sex Crimes, Human Trafficking, Child Abuse, and Elder Abuse units. He also increased professional staff, including more prosecutors, investigators, analysts, victim services, and community partnership staff revolving around the Hate Crimes Unit.
In 2023, he obtained a grand jury indictment against Donald Trump over a 2016 hush money payment, carving himself a place in history as the man behind the first vote to criminally indict a former president.
Bragg is married to Jamila Marie Ponton Bragg, a Harvard alum and founder of JamRock Productions, a theatre production company committed to works for, about, and by women from Pittsburgh.
They are the parents of Maya Bragg and Mark Bragg.
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Erica Orden, “Liberal Manhattan DA takes on Trump in a difficult legal fight,” https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2023/03/20/alvin-bragg-tk-tk-ttk-00087937;
Martin Pengelly, “Who is Alvin Bragg, the DA who got a grand jury to indict Donald Trump?”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/30/who-is-alvin-bragg-donald-trump-indictment;
Shan Wu, “NY DA Alvin Bragg’s Trump Prosecution Is Built on a Couple of Risky Witnesses,” https://www.thedailybeast.com/ny-da-alvin-braggs-trump-prosecution-is-built-on-a-couple-of-risky-witnesses.
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