Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has raised over $800,000 since indicting former President Donald Trump over the payments that his 2016 presidential campaign made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the election.
State campaign finance data shows that Bragg has raked in $845,253 between March 30, 2023, and the latest reporting date, January 12, 2024. Donations from New York State accounted for an overwhelming majority, 72 percent, of the over 800 contributions he received over that time period. Only one of his 20 largest donations was an out-of-state contribution.
On March 30, 2023, Trump became the first U.S. president to ever be indicted, after a Manhattan grand jury charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, a low-level felony in New York. The indictment was unveiled by Bragg’s office five days later at Trump’s arraignment, during which the former president pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Monday when prosecutors and the defense will begin the jury selection process. Trump had made a last-minute attempt to delay the trial last week, but an appeals court denied those efforts, paving the way for Trump to stand trial this week. Bragg said in a court filing earlier this month that Trump has made at least eight other attempts to delay the trial.
A week before the trial was slated to begin, the presumptive GOP nominee asked the appeals court to reverse the gag order that was imposed on him by the judge overseeing the case, but the court said it would take up the issue at a later date.
Judge Juan Merchan had issued a gag order to prevent Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and family members of those involved in the case, but it has not stopped Trump from continuing to do so. Just a day after the partial gag order was imposed, he raged at Merchan and his daughter, who works at a company that runs ads for Democratic Party candidates, on Truth Social.
Trump has also called for Merchan to recuse himself from the case, a request that Bragg has urged the judge to reject, calling it yet another “last-ditch” bid to push back the trial.
Bragg began his investigation into Trump after he was elected as Manhattan’s first Black district attorney in 2021. His predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., who was leading the hush money investigation, did not bring charges against Trump before leaving office.
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Several prosecutors on the case resigned less than two months after Bragg took office, citing their disagreement with Bragg’s decision to not bring charges against Trump in his early days as district attorney. A year later, Bragg responded to those criticisms, arguing that the case against Trump had not been ready at the time.
Bragg will be up for re-election next year. His current term ends on January 1, 2026.
After the Manhattan indictment, Trump was indicted three more times, twice in federal court and once in Fulton County, Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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