Delicate-on-crime Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg was comped free tickets value at the very least $9,400 mixed to attend 17 swanky black tie-affairs and different galas final yr — most of them placed on by lefty teams doing enterprise with the town, The Publish has discovered.
Fourteen of the 17 freebies had been dished out by nonprofits and different organizations with metropolis contracts — and greater than half ranged from $1,000 to almost $5,000 in worth, together with some attended by music and sports activities business celebs, based on a overview of Bragg’s yearly monetary disclosure filings with the town’s Conflicts of Curiosity Board.
They included:
- The NYC Police Basis’s June 6 gala on the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan the place tickets ran at the very least $2,500 every, and Giants Tremendous Bowl MVP Phil Simms attended.
- A occasion additionally held June 6 for Brooklyn-based Middle for Options Sentencing and Employment Companies, who supplied Bragg tickets value $50 to $999 in worth.
The three occasions Bragg attended that weren’t thrown by teams with metropolis enterprise included the April 10 “Keepers of the Dream” gala for Rev. Al Sharpton’s civil rights group Nationwide Motion Community, which holds loads of clout with New York Democratic pols. The DA valued his ducats being value anyplace from $1,000 to almost $5,000.
Bragg — a Democrat who’s has been slammed by critics since taking on as DA in 2022 for villainizing victims whereas going simple on suspects — reported his ticket totals had been value within the vary of $9,400 to almost $53,000.
By comparability, Bronx DA Darcel Clark reported attending 10 occasions final yr as presents value a mixed $1,400 to almost $13,000; Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez reported attending seven valued at mixed $2,260; and Queens DA Melinda Katz and Staten Island DA Michael McMahon reported no such freebies.
Lots of Bragg’s comped tickets blur the strains of potential conflicts of curiosity as a result of as Manhattan’s lead prosecutor he ought to keep away from schmoozing with teams pushing a woke social justice agenda, critics mentioned.
And Bragg “ought to know higher” than to “settle for complimentary presents from companies that do enterprise with the town,” mentioned Republican Maud Maron, a former Authorized Assist Society legal professional operating towards Bragg for Manhattan DA.
“In fact he spends his free time rubbing shoulders with the moneyed elite whose luxurious beliefs allow them to be ok with themselves whereas imposing steep prices on on a regular basis New Yorkers who can’t purchase their approach out of crime and dirt,” she mentioned.
Bragg didn’t listing attending any occasions as free presents in his earlier monetary disclosure statements for 2022 and 2023.
“As an alternative of specializing in making our streets safer, DA Bragg has centered on hobnobbing with particular pursuits at glitzy occasions,” mentioned Diana Florence, a veteran prosecutor operating as an unbiased towards him in November’s basic election.
“Since day one, he has pursued a social experiment that’s made our metropolis extra hospitable for criminals and fewer protected for everybody else. Sufficient is sufficient.”
Bragg spokesperson Danielle Filson mentioned the DA “totally disclosed his assist and attended occasions for victims of home violence, NAN, the NYC Police Basis … and different civic, charitable and group organizations whose work is related to the workplace – similar to his predecessors and fellow DAs.”
“That is nothing however a pathetic try and smear Bragg’s sturdy file of holding Manhattan protected to attain low cost political factors,” she mentioned of his critics.
