Trump Posts Alarming Photo With Baseball Bat Seeming To Threaten Violence Against Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social account a photo of himself holding a baseball bat next to a photo of Alvin Bragg, implying an act of violence against the Manhattan District Attorney.

Bragg and his team are investigating Trump for allegedly having his lawyer pay $130,000 in hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and lying about it on business records during the 2016 presidential campaign. A looming indictment is rumored.

Trump continued to berate Bragg until Friday morning, saying Bragg’s reported decision to indict him would lead to “death and destruction” — likely in reference to how his supporters may react if Trump is indeed arrested by New York officials. The former president referred to Bragg, a black man, as a  “SOROS-BACKED ANIMAL.”

Trump has faced widespread criticism for the baseball bat post, most notably from legal experts who believe there could be criminal ramifications for his threat.

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen argued on Twitter that Trump’s post amounts to a direct threat to a prosecutor, and listed several crimes that he believes Trump undoubtedly committed.

Threatening a prosecutor is a crime in NY. In fact MULTIPLE crimes:

Harassment in the first degree NYPL 240.25;

menacing in the second degree NYPL 120.14;

stalking in the fourth or third degree NYPL 120.45 & 120.50

And that’s just for starters…. https://t.co/yRFJZlo6YO

— Norm Eisen (norm.eisen on Threads) (@NormEisen) March 23, 2023

Law professor Jennifer Taub also criticized the former president, arguing that his post is an “obstruction of Justice” and a “dangerous call to violence.”

This threat is obstruction of justice and is a dangerous call to violence. Everyone needs to speak out pic.twitter.com/wGGRKvx9lu

— Jen Taub (@jentaub) March 23, 2023

Even Jonathan Turley, a conservative legal analyst and law professor who represented Trump during his first impeachment hearing, conceded that Trump’s threat of violence against Bragg has no place in a dispute that can be handled through legal proceedings. Turley also reiterated his public disapproval of Bragg’s rumored indictment, which the legal expert views as “deeply flawed and politically motivated.”

…Once again, many of us have criticized the reported indictment as deeply flawed and politically motivated. https://t.co/M7CooqSOqW However, that will be addressed by the courts. The rule of law will be protected by the bench, not the bat, in our constitutional system.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 24, 2023

Top House Republican leaders requested on Tuesday more information from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office about the rumored indictment, arguing that the pending prosecution is a politically motivated stunt.

Bragg’s general counsel Leslie Dubeck rejected the request, saying in a response letter that the potential prosecution was a state matter and was outside of Congress’s jurisdiction.