Politico mocked for headline claiming DA Alvin Bragg was 'reluctant' to prosecute Donald Trump

Politico was swiftly criticized on Saturday over a headline posted to social media that branded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg the "reluctant prosecutor" of former President Donald Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony counts related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. 

The headline read, "This reluctant prosecutor just made Donald Trump a felon." 

"The Harlem Democrat, who at times seemed like a reluctant participant in a trial he launched, secured a place in history as the first prosecutor to land the conviction of an American president," the Politico report read. 

Conservatives were quick to note that the Manhattan district attorney campaigned on prosecuting Trump. A withering community note was also tagged on to the original post with some reader context.

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Bragg said during an interview in 2021 that he personally planned to focus on the Trump case as soon as he became DA.

"This is obviously a consequential case, one that merits the attention of the DA personally," Bragg said, according to CNN.

CNN political commentator Scott Jennings made a reference to The Washington Post, which infamously described ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as an "austere religious scholar," following his death in 2019. 

"I thought nobody would ever top ‘austere religious scholar,’" Jennings wrote on X. 

Some New York Democratic leaders told Politico that the Trump prosecution gave Bragg a great record to run on. 

"Alvin Bragg is going to run on a history-making, career-making prosecution," Maya Wiley, a progressive legal commentator who previously ran for mayor in the city, told the outlet. "The first ever of a former U.S. president. Period. That’s a hell of a record to run on on its own."

Politico was criticized for a headline posted to social media claiming DA Alvin Bragg was "reluctant" to prosecute Donald Trump. ((Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)/ (Screenshot/Politico))

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Following the verdict, Bragg said it was his duty to prosecute Trump. 

"I did my job. Our job is to follow the facts and the law without fear or favor. And that's exactly what we did here. And what I feel is gratitude to work alongside phenomenal public servants who do that each and every day in matters that you all write about… I did my job. We did our job. Many voices out there. The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury. And the jury has spoken," Bragg said Thursday evening. 

Critics continued to question Politico's use of the word "reluctant." 

"He was so reluctant that he ran on prosecuting Trump and then frankensteined a case from state and federal parts," Jorge Bonilla of The Media Research Center wrote on X. 

"The 12 everyday jurors vowed to make a decision based on the evidence and the law, and the evidence and the law alone. Their deliberations led them to a unanimous conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, Donald J. Trump, is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree to conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election," Bragg told the press after the verdict, adding that such white collar crimes are at the "core to what we do at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office." 

Politico did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.