For a hearing on Monday, the House Republicans travelled to New York in an attempt to use the criminal justice system as a political football against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, who accused former President Donald J. Trump of fabricating financial records.
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee charged Mr. Bragg during the hearing, “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,” of adopting “pro-crime, anti-victim policies” that, in their words, have led to “an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents,” according to a committee release.
Democrats have dismissed the session as a stunt meant to mislead the public into believing that crime has reached crisis levels because of lax enforcement by liberal officials. “The pro-crime Republican Party’s latest political stunt is to come to New York City and interfere in an ongoing criminal investigation,” Representatives Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, both Democrats of New York, said a statement. “At the explicit direction of Donald Trump, they are coming to the safest big city in America with the sole aim of abusing their power to serve as a taxpayer-funded arm of Donald Trump’s legal defense team.”
There is little doubt that the hearing’s subtext is political; it is the latest instance of Republicans trying to amplify voters’ concerns about violent crime and blame Democrats for it. Here is what the data actually says about crime in New York — and what Monday’s session is really about.
House Republicans, led by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the Judiciary Committee chairman, have been attempting to interfere with Mr. Bragg’s prosecution of Trump on charges of falsifying business records in connection with his hush money payments to a porn star. They have put public pressure on Mr. Bragg to produce documents and testimony about his ongoing criminal case and bogged down his office with demands.
Before the hearing started, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, attacked Mr. Jordan at a joint news conference with Mayor Eric Adams.
Jim Jordan does a lot of political theatre in Washington, but Mr. Nadler said he should know better than to bring his stale act to Broadway.
Mr. Bragg has described New York as the “safest big city in America” and highlighted that its crime rate is lower than that of the cities in the states of his Republican adversaries ever since the announcement of the Republican-led hearing. As an example, Mr. Bragg stated that the crime rate in New York is around one-third that of Columbus, Ohio, which is located just south of Mr. Jordan’s area.
Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Centre at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, claims that New York is statistically safer relative to its population than other locations in Republican and swing states like Jefferson County, Ark.; Robeson County, N.C.; Montgomery County, Ala.; and Bibb County, Georgia.