Alvin Bragg’s office faces lawsuit over records related to Trump prosecution

A lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s office, alleging the elected Democrat illegally withheld records related to the felony hush money case against former President Donald Trump.

The complaint, filed by the conservative group America First Legal, was prompted by Bragg’s repeated denials of AFL’s Freedom of Information Law requests, which sought communications between Bragg’s office, the Biden administration, and other parties potentially involved in what AFL described as the “partisan persecution” of Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

“There should be nothing to hide,” AFL Vice President Daniel Epstein said in a statement. “If improper ex parte communications influenced what is supposed to be nonpartisan prosecutorial conduct, all Americans are at risk.”

AFL began its investigation in March 2023, focusing on internal and external communications within the district attorney’s office concerning Trump. The group’s requests also sought records of interactions with high-profile figures such as Lanny Davis, a Democratic consultant and attorney for ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who claimed credit for sparking the district attorney’s investigation into Trump during an interview with Politico in March of last year.

At the time, Davis said he told former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance that “the evidence of financial fraud was on the record in the [congressional] hearings and that Vance’s office should interview Michael.” He also said “I’ll be disappointed” if Bragg did not indict Trump.

Vance previously declined to pursue an indictment following a deep investigation into the Trump hush money case after his team was asked by the Southern District of New York to stand down.

But when the case was revived the year after Bragg assumed office in 2022, Cohen became the district attorney’s star witness during the six-week trial against Trump, which concluded after a jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump is set to be sentenced on Sept. 18, while Judge Juan Merchan decides whether the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision affects the case.

The open records requests also sought information related to potential communications between Bragg’s office and the Free and Fair Litigation Group, which was founded by Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who both investigated Trump’s finances when they worked in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

In the lawsuit, AFL argues that Bragg’s office has acted arbitrarily and unlawfully by not fulfilling its obligations under New York’s open records law. The organization contends that the office has improperly invoked exemptions, such as grand jury secrecy and attorney work product protections, to avoid disclosing information that is of significant public interest, especially in light of the high-profile nature of Trump’s case.

AFL, a group run by former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, asserts that Bragg’s office has only released a single-page document citing various exemptions and claiming that the requests were overly broad or burdensome.

The legal action seeks to compel Bragg’s office to release the requested records, or at least those portions that are not legitimately exempt from disclosure. AFL also requests that the court order Bragg’s office to conduct a more thorough search for the documents and to justify any withholdings in detail. 

The Washington Examiner contacted Bragg’s office for response.