'Incredibly Alarming': Russell Fry Blasts NY DA Alvin Bragg Over Prosecution Of Donald Trump

4 months ago

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing held last week, Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) spoke about New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

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Transcript

00:00Gentlemen from South Carolina is recognized.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:08Ms. Foley, did Alvin Bragg's indictment

00:12actually articulate a provable felony offense?

00:16Did the indictment?

00:20No. I mean the indictment was about as generic as you could get.

00:24I mean one of the primary elements is the intent to commit another crime.

00:28The indictment said nothing, nothing about that.

00:32And he provided a statement of facts that accompanied the indictment.

00:36That also said nothing about what that other crime was.

00:40Why do you suppose that was, that it omitted that?

00:44I think to the extent that you want to convict someone,

00:48you hide the ball, you obfuscate, and that keeps the defense counsel on their toes.

00:52They don't know what evidence to put forward to the jury.

00:56It makes it very difficult to defend if you're a defense counsel.

01:00And how does that impact the jury instructions in the end? You talked about that, but I want you to discuss that again.

01:04Yeah, well, you know, you don't know till the end, if you don't know

01:08till the end, what exactly the first predicate is.

01:12You don't know who to put on the stand.

01:16You don't know what evidence to put forward.

01:20The only reason he tried to bring forward Brad Smith, for example, the former FEC chair,

01:24was because Alvin Brad kept hinting that maybe,

01:28maybe one of the bases for the first predicate was

01:32the FECA violation.

01:36And so he kind of knew that, so he tried to get a witness to say something about that

01:40and he was denied. So it was just an exercise in futility

01:44for Trump to try to defend this case, because it wasn't clear exactly

01:48what he was being charged with. Thank you for that. And just changing gears a little bit, who is Matthew Colangelo?

01:52Well, he was, what, the number three guy in the Department of Justice?

01:56Correct. And what was his current title? What does he do now?

02:00He's on Alvin Brad's prosecutorial team. I'm not sure exactly what his title is.

02:04A state DA. Yeah, state DA. That's correct. Is it unusual to see somebody go

02:08from, what, the number three position at the Department of Justice to a state

02:12district attorney? You know, I know some other members of the committee

02:16have suggested, well, you know, you do it out of the goodness of your heart because you're a public

02:20servant and all that jazz. And I'm sure that's true, but at the

02:24same time, it's exceedingly unusual for that to happen,

02:28for you to take a downward movement in your career. And because

02:32of the unusual nature of it, it makes you go, hmm. Yeah, I think it

02:36raises questions, and I think the American people see that. I think polling consistently shows

02:40that the American people believe that

02:44the prosecution of President Trump in Manhattan was more

02:48about politics than it was about some violation of the law. And of course, we've

02:52seen that, right? I mean, district attorney Bragg

02:56campaigned on going after a certain individual, not some

03:00violation of the crime. It was identify the man and then go after the crime.

03:04And I think that's incredibly alarming just for the justice system broadly.

03:08Is it fair to say that, as a former DOJ official, that Mr. Colangelo

03:12would have high-level contacts within the Biden Department of Justice?

03:16Oh, undoubtedly. And I hope, if he does

03:20actually show up before the committee, that there are a lot of vigorous questions about

03:24that. If there was or continues to be some sort of

03:28coordination between the Department of Justice, based on those contacts,

03:32and the district attorney's office, what effect would that have

03:36on a case? It would be a tremendous effect. I mean, it would be

03:40a huge advantage for someone from the Department of Justice to sort

03:44of implant themselves in a state prosecution,

03:48which involves state crimes, obviously only, because

03:52it would benefit his former boss, the person for whom he worked.

03:56And, you know, again, it would just sort of re-emphasize the impression,

04:00the suspicion, that this is a politically motivated prosecution.

04:04I think that's why it's important, too. Are you aware that members of Congress have the

04:08ability to remove cases from state court to federal court? Yeah.

04:12Judges, same thing. There's a bill that I've introduced called the

04:16No More Political Prosecutions Act, which would allow that to happen. Why might a president

04:20or former president want to remove the venue from

04:24a state district case to a federal jurisdiction?

04:28Well, you know, the hallmark of federal judges, as opposed to state judges, is they're appointed for life

04:32with the advice and consent of the Senate, whereas state judges are generally

04:36elected, and so they're more political creatures by nature.

04:40You know, they wear the robes of legislators

04:44to a certain extent, because they do have to stand for election.

04:48So you hope to get the neutrality, you know, the political independence from

04:52a federal court. In your experience as jury, the jury selection process,

04:56is that more robust at the federal level than it is at the state, generally speaking?

05:00Yeah, absolutely. The voir dire is much more extensive.

05:04The judge controls

05:08that process much more, in terms of making sure

05:12abuses don't take place. So yeah, I would

05:16assume that, you know, in general, the federal

05:20judicial process is much tighter and less

05:24loosey-goosey, I guess is the way I'd put it, than a state process.

05:28Thank you, Ms. Foley. I see my time has expired, Mr. Chairman, soon-to-be Governor of North Dakota,

05:32and with that, I yield.

'Incredibly Alarming': Russell Fry Blasts NY DA Alvin Bragg Over Prosecution Of Donald Trump

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