The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Wednesday it will hear from a former New York City bodega clerk, an anti-crime activist, and the mother of a murdered son in next week's congressional hearing involving Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor behind the criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.
The witnesses include Jose Alba, the bodega worker charged with murder after he stabbed a man who attacked him; Madeline Brame who became the chair of the Victim Rights Reform Council after her son, Army veteran Hason Correa, was fatally stabbed in Harlem in 2018; and Jennifer Harrison, founder of Victim Rights NY, reported the The Daily Mail.
Additional witnesses could also be called to testify in a push to show that crimes are occurring but not being properly prosecuted at a time when Bragg has been seeking Trump's indictment.
The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday at the Javitz Federal Building in New York City. Democrats have called the hearing a "political stunt," but some are still expected to show up.
Alba, 62, was initially charged with second-degree murder for the stabbing of Austin Simon, 35, who attacked him in the Harlem bodega where Alba was working.
Bragg's office eventually asked a judge to drop the charges after he received backlash, including from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, about the case of self-defense after video surveillance footage showed Alba was attacked.
Brame is the mother of Correa, 35, a married father of three who was beaten and stabbed to death outside a Harlem apartment building.
Two of Correa's attackers reached a plea deal with Manhattan's prosecutors, with one being let off for time served, but the man who stabbed Correa was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Brame, in letters to Bragg and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last summer, said Bragg's office violated her rights as a crime victim because she was not informed that a plea deal would be offered.
Harrison, as head of Victim Rights NY, is pushing a "fire Alvin Bragg" campaign and says her boyfriend and best friend were killed in a double homicide, but two of the assailants were allowed to go free while the third was released after a few years.
Harrison has called for repealing the state's bail reform process that requires all those being held on misdemeanor charges and some felony suspects to be released without cash bail.
Bragg is refusing to comply with requests for documents from three congressional hearings. He filed a lawsuit Tuesday to stop the Judiciary Committee and its investigation of his office, saying the probe is interfering with the criminal case against Trump.
Trump faces 34 felony counts involving records about the payment of hush money to a porn star who said she had an affair with the former president, which he denies.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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