Manhattan DA reassures staff of their safety after Trump protest call
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg reassured staff in a memo Saturday that efforts to intimidate them or threaten the rule of law will not be tolerated.
Driving the news: The move comes after former President Trump issued a call on social media Saturday for his supporters to protest in light of what he claimed is his impending arrest.
- Citing “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Trump wrote that he would be arrested on Tuesday amid the office's investigation into a hush money payment allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
- “Protest, take our nation back!” he wrote.
State of play: Bragg told staff that their safety was a “top priority” and that law enforcement partners would fully investigate any “specific or credible threats” against the office.
- “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York,” he wrote in the memo, which was first reported by Politico.
- While Bragg did not mention Trump by name, the letter to staff alluded to the “press attention and public comments surrounding an ongoing investigation by this office.”
The big picture: Trump was invited to testify before a New York grand jury earlier this month as part of the Manhattan district attorney's office investigation into the hush money payment Daniels.
- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Saturday accused Bragg of an “outrageous abuse of power” and announced a congressional investigation into the matter.
Go deeper: Timeline: The probe into Trump's alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels