A group of more than two dozen New York state and city officials penned a letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, urging him to cancel a hearing set for Monday focused on violent crime in the nation’s largest city.
The hearing, announced last week, will focus on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor who charged former President Donald Trump with 34 felonies earlier this month. It “will examine how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s pro-crime, anti-victim policies have led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents,” the GOP-led panel said in a statement.
Violent crimes have increased across the city in recent years, though the number of murders in 2022 was at its lowest since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, according to NYPD data. As of April 2, murders, rapes, shootings and robberies were all down, while felony assaults have risen 9% compared to the same period in 2022.
Overall, crime is lower than in the early 2000s and far below the worst years of the 1980s and 1990s. In Manhattan, where Bragg has jurisdiction, murders, rapes, shootings and robberies continue to decline in 2023 compared to the same period last year, while felony assaults have continued to rise.
Bragg’s office has previously condemned the hearing as a meritless “political stunt” which “won't engage in actual efforts to increase public safety.”
In their letter Friday, the New York officials blasted Republican leaders for what they charge is “a systematic campaign of dishonest and disrespectful attacks on the people we represent,” condemning rhetoric from GOP lawmakers like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., as a smear attack on the city.
“These outrageous slurs are not only insulting - they can cause real economic harm to the small business owners who rely on the tourism industry to survive,” they wrote. “Now you stand poised to continue these spiteful and orchestrated attacks on our city with a sham hearing, the true purpose of which is to undermine New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg's legitimate investigation into the criminal activities of Donald J. Trump.”
The letter was signed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, members of the New York state Senate, including Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who chairs the Judiciary committee, and members of the New York state Assembly and New York City Council.
The New York officials continued by charging that the GOP-led hearing on Monday, which they described as “purely performative,” would “neglect to mention” declining rates for both shootings and homicides in Manhattan during Bragg’s first year as DA, and have fallen further so far in 2023.
They also pointed out that New York’s murder rate last year was lower (5.2) than in Columbus, Ohio, (15.4) which is adjacent to chairman Jordan’s district, and charged that if lawmakers wanted to address crime, they would utilize their majority in the House “to pass national gun safety legislation after the latest horrific tragedies in Tennessee and Kentucky; work to close the iron pipeline that funnels guns into New York City where they are used to kill and mutilate our people; and disavow recent talk of defunding the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI.”
“We're proud to call Manhattan our home, and will not stand by as you trash its reputation to help Trump's legal team short-circuit a legitimate criminal case,” they concluded. "On behalf of the 1.7 million people who live in Manhattan, and in solidarity with the other 7.1 million who also live in New York City, the greatest city in the world, cancel Monday's charade.”
Monday’s unusual hearing is shaping up to be quite the spectacle, with both parties attempting to add members to the proceedings.
House Republicans have announced three of their witnesses at the hearing – all of them either victims of crime or stark critics of bail reforms in New York state pushed by Democrats. Whether those reforms contributed to an increase in crime in New York during the pandemic has been the subject of a fierce debate.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the top-ranking congressional Republican in New York, is expected to attend. Though she is not a member of the Judiciary panel, discussions are underway about waiving her on to the committee to participate, per a committee aide.
On the Democratic side, sources confirmed to Spectrum News that the Judiciary Committee’s Democrats are working to get Rep. Dan Goldman waived onto the panel. News of Goldman's potential inclusion was first reported by Punchbowl News.
McCarthy is set to be in New York City on Monday to speak at the New York Stock Exchange. His office told Spectrum News that he is not expected to drop by the field hearing.
Meanwhile, a source said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who represents Brooklyn, has been involved in crafting the Democratic response.
Bragg and Jordan have clashed repeatedly over the Trump investigation. Jordan has demanded that Bragg testify before Congress about his investigation, a request Bragg's office rejected as "unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty." On Tuesday, Bragg sued Jordan in an effort to block him from what the district attorney charges as meddling in the ongoing criminal case.
Spectrum News' Kevin Frey and Joseph Konig contributed to this report.