DOJ Official Calls State Officials Like Alvin Bragg and Letitia James “Idiots” Who Run New York Like “The Wild West” And Are “All Political”

The political and legal world was taken by storm on Thursday when a video of SDNY Chief of Public Affairs, Nicholas Biase, surfaced on X, the social media platform, in which Biase criticized the “nonsense” lawfare being waged by Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, and Fani Willis against President Donald Trump.  The DOJ spokesman denounced these witch-hunts as a “perversion,” “travesty,” and “mockery” of the justice system, calling them “disgusting” and “nonsense” attempts to tarnish the reputation of an innocent man, in order to acquire notoriety and fame in the process. 

Biase, who has known Alvin Bragg for fifteen years, explained how the New York District Attorney “rearranged [certain facts] just to make [them] fit” his makeshift legal theory, an entirely “political” hatchet job for the purposes of elevating his own profile. 

In just a few short sentences, Biase perfectly summarized Bragg’s modus operandi:

“He wants to be, something … a mayor? I’m not sure what he wants to be, but I know he’s not happy just being the DA of New York County. Before he decided to prosecute Trump, did you know who he was? You do now!”

Biase’s brutal critique of Bragg, James, and Willis – all of whom, ultimately, are marching to the drum of Merrick Garland and Joe Biden – is noteworthy for being the most frank assessment to date of the miscarriage of justice against President Trump by a Democrat-aligned DOJ official.  Biase’s withering evaluation of the unprecedented lawfare that threatens to do incalculable damage to due process and the rule of law in this country is something that many Americans, tens if not hundreds of millions of them, have long recognized, and rightly condemned, as egregiously wrong – existential threats to our constitutional order, which now teeters so close to devolving into a banana republic.  And in some places, like New York, it might already be there.

We presently have a system in which there is an alignment of interests between Merrick Garland, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris – who have both a political and ideological interest in the prosecution and sentencing of Donald Trump, the main antagonist to the hegemony of Washington’s trenchant ruling class, and the bad faith actors on the state level – like Bragg and Willis – who are raring to climb the political ladder, and so likewise have an interest in making a name for themselves.

Indeed, Biase spelled this out explicitly: prior to the Trump case, Bragg was formerly a no-name, District Attorney identified by his slovenly public appearances with a checkered record and reputation for being lazy and not particularly bright.  Thus, the opportunity to prosecute Donald Trump, the most famous man in the world and the leading candidate to become the 47^th president, offered a godsend for an otherwise mediocre bureaucrat, perhaps the only chance someone like Bragg would get in an entire lifetime to raise himself from obscurity.

It was ruthless political calculus on Bragg’s part, plain and simple.  As Biase confessed, Bragg is not content with his position as District Attorney, and has ambitions to become New York City Mayor, or some other higher office.  The problem, as with all mediocre bureaucrats, is that he possesses no extraordinary skills or otherworldly talents to distinguish himself apart from New York’s bureaucratic morass on which he is parasitically dependent. The same applies to Letitia James, who, like Bragg, is vying for the gubernatorial post, viewing herself as the true powerbroker in Albany, in contrast with Hochul, whose own fickleness has rendered her into a mostly figurehead role.  By campaigning on “getting” Trump, James’ long-term hope is that Kamala Harris will be elected, through no small part due to her own electoral devilry, then appoint Hochul to a cabinet position, thus clearing the pathway for James herself to ascend to the highest office in the Empire State, where she might wield absolute power.

Of course, either scenario would spell certain doom for New York, whose citizens now suffer mightily from the burdens exacted upon their state’s judicial system by its incompetent political leadership.  At this point, Bragg and James are nothing more than thinly veiled Marxist activists who have just over the past few years rapidly transformed New York into something more resembling Venezuela under Hugo Chavez or Castro’s Cuba.  This follows the lead of the rest of the country under Biden and Harris, which increasingly bears an uncanny resemblance to the old Soviet Union, or modern-day Communist China rather than anything recognizable in America’s cherished past.

In fact, many New York state attorneys, judges, and prosecutors – a group that includes too many Democrats to count – understand this bleak picture.  Biase’s sentiment is widely shared among so many of Bragg’s and James’ peers in New York’s legal community, a significant swath of whom despite being registered Democrats themselves, express deep worries in private about the ominous trajectory of the state under Bragg and James’ stewardship.  Many of the most distinguished state judges quietly mock James and Bragg behind closed doors, frequently calling them “stupid” and “useful pawns” of their Democratic superiors – like Merrick Garland – in Washington. In Washington, it is commonplace for senior level DOJ officials to express contempt, disgust even, for people like Bragg, James, and Willis in private conversation — a frequent label attached to them is “ghetto trash” (and this by Democrat officials!) who are “only kept around” because, as of now, Washington and various state-level DAs and AGs share mutual political and ideological interests with them — most notably, as co-conspirators to interfere with this year’s election.

This demonstrates that the nature of the relationship between the DOJ and Bragg, Willis, and James is entirely transactional.  All but the most obtuse and selfish players (e.g., Bragg and James) see it for what it is.  Immediately once their usefulness runs out, they will be quickly disposed – much like Cuomo and de Blasio before them who were put on the chopping block as soon as the powers that be found they had outlived their expiration dates and become liabilities.

President Trump said at Friday’s presser that while the “travesty of justice” – to borrow Biase’s own phrase – was a terrible thing for the country, he was happy that his example at least would “reveal” just how deeply the corruption permeated the judicial system.  New York’s legal system, once the model for the country at large, has been severely delegitimized by unworthy actors, like James and Bragg, who have demonstrated themselves to be bad-faith actors — stupid, incompetent, and evil.

They are driven by extreme pettiness and ego, coupled with ignorance and a pathological fixation to bring down a single innocent man – a noxiously fatal combination; vices that have brought greater societies to ruin.   The damage they have rendered to the public trust is, yet, unforeseeable, but doubtlessly goes far beyond New York’s discredited justice system.  And extends all the way to problems like the mounting homelessness or the historic levels of crime that now ravages New York City streets, problems which are exacerbated by DAs and AGs who neglect their fundamental civic duties and pursue petty personal vendettas instead. 

As it so happens, Letitia James is actually a subscriber of this Newsletter, which says everything about her ego and paranoia.  That her office is devoted to researching a blog which exposes and excoriates the countless improprieties of New York’s criminal justice system, of which unfortunately made a test case of the 45^th President, betrays her own insecurities that psychologically arise from the truth that she did not earn her position out of merit, but through affirmative action and ruthless opportunism. 

Her ignorance is readily on display whenever she tramples on the rights and liberties of innocent Americans without a trace of self-reflection.  Whenever she – or Bragg, or Merchan, or Willis – ignores time-honored precedent and weaponizes justice to attack political opponents, not anticipating the long-term devastating consequences of her actions, consequences that might sooner or later turn against her, it only strengthens and vindicates President Trump’s critiques against them.  Namely, as individuals who, lacking wisdom and considered judgment, have plainly demonstrated themselves to be unworthy of their public offices. 

Letitia James and Alvin Bragg have violated their constitutional oaths and irrevocably breached their social contract with the public in ways that are horrific as to be beyond comprehension.  They are the physical embodiments of a failed and corrupt system, one that has abandoned even the pretext of fair and impartial justice.  This trajectory is one that will be fated for – and sadly deserving of – the dustbin of history; a destiny that it will indeed encounter, and be welcomed, if allowed to continue unchecked down a such a perilous course that has tragically made justice a casualty of those who so clearly never understood its true meaning.

Paul Ingrassia is an Attorney; Communications Director of the NCLU; a two-time Claremont Fellow, and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club and the Italian American Civil Rights League. He writes a widely read Substack that is regularly posted on Truth Social by President Trump. Follow him on X @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, Instagram, and Rumble.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.