Under Fire, Manhattan D.A. Defends Handling of Trump Investigation

In these roles, Mr. Bragg’s assertion mentioned, he “efficiently introduced instances involving cash laundering, witness tampering, mortgage fraud, official misconduct, and bribery.”

He talked about having prosecuted elected officers, together with a New York state senator, Malcolm Smith, and a Metropolis Council member, Daniel Halloran, for bribery schemes. And he famous the civil litigation he had overseen towards Mr. Trump whereas on the state lawyer common’s workplace, which included a lawsuit that led to the dissolution of the Trump household’s charitable basis.

“I do know difficult instances and I’m bringing the rigor that I delivered to these right here,” Mr. Bragg mentioned.

Mr. Bragg, who took workplace on Jan. 1, has had a rocky tenure. In his first week in workplace, he issued a memo pledging to ship defendants to jail and jail just for probably the most critical crimes.

After a month of backlash — from law enforcement officials, enterprise homeowners, elected officers and the general public — the brand new district lawyer issued a clarification emphasizing that his prosecutors weren’t sure by the memo and had been granted the ability to deal with their very own instances.

On the similar time, Mr. Bragg was holding a sequence of conferences with Mr. Pomerantz, Mr. Dunne and members of the Trump investigative crew, as the 2 senior prosecutors sought to persuade the brand new district lawyer and his prime aides to permit them to proceed presenting proof to the grand jury about Mr. Trump.

However Mr. Bragg expressed concern, The Instances beforehand reported, notably concerning the chance that the prosecutors would possibly depend on the testimony of Michael D. Cohen, a longtime fixer for Mr. Trump who later turned towards his former boss.

Mr. Pomerantz threatened to resign in January, however agreed to remain on with a view to make a last-ditch try and persuade Mr. Bragg that the grand jury presentation ought to proceed. He and Mr. Dunne performed a sequence of conferences with the district lawyer in February, hoping to persuade him to cost Mr. Trump with conspiracy and falsifying enterprise information — in impact, portray the previous president as a liar, reasonably than a thief.

However Mr. Bragg remained unconvinced, and on Feb. 22, advised Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunne that he was not able to proceed. They resigned the following day.