Alvin Bragg Holds Press Conference After Trump's Arraignment

Following the arraignment of President Donald Trump on Tuesday afternoon, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg held a press conference where he alleged that Trump and other Trump associates orchestrated and employed a so-called "catch and kill scheme" to "buy and suppress negative information" in order to help Trump's chances at winning the 2016 presidential election.

Alvin Bragg says that the second crime Donald Trump tried to conceal with the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels was "suppressing negative information to help his chances of winning the 2016 election." pic.twitter.com/dYVdKf4lAZ
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 4, 2023

Inside the Supreme Civil Court—located next to the Manhattan Criminal Court, where Trump was arraigned and pled not guilty to 34 felony counts—Bragg delivered remarks and took just a handful of questions from members of the press gathered there.

Bragg maintained that his office brought the case against Trump when it was ready. "I bring cases when they're ready," Bragg told reporters. "Having now conducted a rigorous, thorough investigation, the case was ready to be brought, and it was brought."

DA Alvin Bragg on the timing of this indictment:

"The case was ready to be brought, and it was brought." pic.twitter.com/AZQpeBh1Fk
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 4, 2023

"These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are. We can not and will not normalize serious criminal conduct," Bragg, who has quickly earned a reputation of being a soft-on-crime prosecutor, declared from the podium. Since the issuing of his disastrous "Day One" memo ordering Manhattan prosecutors to stop seeking prison sentences for a slew of offenses and reduce some felony charges, Bragg's office has downgraded felonies to misdemeanors in a majority (52%) of its criminal cases.

Upon release of the 34-count felony indictment, Bragg's office issued a press release, further claiming that Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election." There, the Soros-funded district attorney alleged that, as the statement of facts claims, "the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws."

We just announced a 34-count felony indictment of former President Donald J. Trump. Learn more: https://t.co/PTTh2zlsvv pic.twitter.com/IUE6JjdrS2
— Alvin Bragg (@ManhattanDA) April 4, 2023

The press release details more of Bragg's claims alleging that the supposed "catch and kill scheme" was used on the campaign trail from August 2015 through December 2017 to "identify, purchase, and bury negative information about [Trump] and boost his electoral prospects" via a series of payments that Trump allegedly "then concealed through months of false business entries."