America First Legal, headed by noted white nationalist and Donald Trump acolyte Stephen Miller, has accused New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg of discriminating against white men and Asian people through the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hiring policies of Bragg’s office. In a press release on June 6, the group complained that Bragg’s office emphasizes diversity to mask a hiring quota.
As Newsweek reports, Miller, who has no background as a lawyer, founded the controversial group in 2021 to combat “woke corporations,” “the fake news media,” and “liberal Washington politicians.”
The press release indicates that the group has filed state and federal complaints, including a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) complaint, which alleges that the hiring practices of Bragg’s office violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and New York State’s Human Rights Law. As William C. Anderson sets forth in an op-ed for Prism Reports, the citing of laws meant to protect Black people has been a common tactic of Republican legal activism groups and individuals like America First and Edward Blum.As Anderson writes: “Furthermore, conservative legal “activists” like Blum are the epitome of turning even nominal legal protections and civil rights laws against their target populations. Blum is behind the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the targeting of affirmative action, race-conscious admissions policies, and diversity policies.”
Indeed, in the press release, Reed D. Rubenstein, the senior vice president of America First Legal, makes the argument that Anderson points out is becoming commonplace. “Alvin Bragg has demonstrated beyond all doubt that he will disregard the law and abuse his authority to advance a political agenda. His practice of recruiting, hiring, and promoting workers based on their race, sex, or national origin is obnoxious, immoral, and illegal. The EEOC and the New York Human Rights Division were created to stop Bragg and others like him from illegally discriminating against Americans; based on the facts, they should act to protect equality and the rule of law.“
Bragg is the first Black district attorney to serve Manhattan, and America First Legal has also made several attempts to discredit Bragg’s prosecution of Trump. According to Politico, however, Bragg’s prosecution was done reluctantly and by the book. In another press release on June 3, Rubenstein called Trump’s hush money trial a “Stalinesque show trial” and said, “District Attorney Bragg, Judge Merchan, and every prosecutor associated with it have dishonored his or her oath and office. To protect our justice system, there must be accountability – and AFL will relentlessly work to expose the truth.”
As Vanity Fair reports, Trump’s allies and acolytes are threatening to imprison Bragg and impeach President Joe Biden
over what they have determined to be a politically motivated prosecution of the presumptive Republican Party nominee. As Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Fox News, a congressional hearing scheduled for June 13 will “investigate what these prosecutors are doing at the state and federal level to use politics, you know, political retribution in the court system, to go after political opponents, federal officials like Donald Trump.”RELATED CONTENT: GOTEEM! Donald Trump Found Guilty Of 34 Felony Charges In Hush Money Trial