Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., says he will attempt to dismiss claims from Republicans about rising crime rates in New York City as he defends Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg during a field hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee next week.
Slated to take place in the Big Apple on Monday, the committee said this week the hearing 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.”
But Nadler isn’t on board with the notion that Bragg is responsible for a rise in crime, or if there’s even a rise in crime at all, according to comments he offered to the New York Post.
“We will show the essentially fraudulent nature of what Jim Jordan and company are claiming about the crime rates in New York and compared to other cities, including Republican-led cities,” Nadler told the outlet.
JORDAN TAKES THE FIGHT TO ALVIN BRAGG, PLANS NYC HEARING ON HIS ‘PRO-CRIME’ POLICIES
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., says he will dispel claims from Republicans about rising crime rates in New York City as he defends Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg during a field hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee next week. (Rob Kim, Kena Betancur via Getty Images)
Nadler — who represents New York’s 12th congressional district, which includes central Manhattan — also said he will use the opportunity in New York to talk “about how this whole hearing is part of Jim Jordan and the Republicans’ general attempts to obstruct justice and to attack the DA in Manhattan and to obstruct justice in the Trump case.”
Despite Nadler’s claim about the “fraudulent nature” of Republican criticism about criminal justice in most populous city in the United States, certain violent crimes have increased in recent years.
Violent felony offense complaints jumped from 35,964 in 2020 to 38,645 in 2021 and then to 45,529 in 2022, according to New York Police Department data released earlier this year. Additionally, the total number of felony offenses — both violent and non-violent — rose from 95,593 in 2020 to 102,741 in 2021 to 126,589 in 2022.
While the city has experienced a recent jump in crime for certain offenses, it is not at a record high like it was in past decades. Previous NYPD data revealed there were nearly 530,000 major felony offenses in 1990 and more than 160,000 major felony offenses in 2001.
New York City police gather at the scene of a shooting of a 78-year-old man by police on April 13, 2023 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Nadler’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on this issue of crime in New York City.
DEM COUNCILMAN WILL TESTIFY BRAGG IS TO BLAME FOR NYC ‘LAWLESSNESS’ AT HOUSE JUDICIARY HEARING
The announcement for the New York City field hearing came less than a week after former President Donald Trump was arraigned for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records following Bragg’s years-long investigation into Trump. Trump pleaded not guilty.
After the indictment, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, accused Bragg of “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority” and demanded that he testify before Congress.
“In light of the serious consequences of your actions, we expect that you will testify about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision,” Jordan wrote in a letter to Bragg last month.
Last week, Jordan subpoenaed former New York County Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz to testify on the role he played investigating Trump’s finances before resigning in protest when Bragg initially declined to charge Trump with crimes. Jordan alleged that Pomertantz instigated a political investigation.
After the Trump indictment, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, accused Bragg of “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority” and demanded that he testify before Congress. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Bragg said the subpoena is an “unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation” from House GOP members.
New York City Councilman Robert Holden, a Democrat who has represented New York City’s 30th district since 2018, told Fox News Digital earlier this week that he plans to testify at the Monday hearing that Bragg has contributed to the “lawlessness” on city streets.
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Holden said he is a life-long New Yorker who has had his “issues” with Bragg since he took over as DA in January 2022.
“When Bragg came in, he issued that ridiculous edict that he was not going to prosecute smaller crimes,” Holden said. “What do we have in New York City? We have lawlessness on the streets.”
Additionally, Holden said he has “never seen the lawlessness we are seeing now.”
Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy and Brooke Singman contributed to this article.
