Altered clip of Manhattan DA Bragg spreads falsehoods amid Trump case
CLAIM: A video shows Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announcing that he will “drop all charges” against former President Donald Trump and is resigning.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Bragg has made no such announcement. Fabricated audio was added to a 2022 video of the district attorney speaking at an event hosted by the New York University School of Law. A grand jury is still weighing an indictment against Trump, so Bragg’s office has not actually brought any criminal charges against the former president.
THE FACTS: As the grand jury continues to investigate Trump over hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign, an altered video of Bragg has spread online in recent days.
In the edited clip, Bragg appears to say his office has “decided to drop all charges against Donald Trump” and that he is resigning from his position as district attorney.
The altered video appears to have been originally shared as a joke on Thursday; the audio becomes increasingly absurd as it goes on, including numerous disparaging comments about Bragg’s appearance and a reference to the user who first posted the doctored clip. A close look also shows that the voice in the audio does not match Bragg’s mouth as he speaks.
But in the days after it was first posted, other social media users shared the clip and its claims as real, with one Facebook post racking up more than 5,000 likes as of Saturday
The original video shows Bragg speaking at an event hosted by the New York University School of Law and was posted on his office’s YouTube page in January 2022, the same month he took office. The district attorney’s outfit and the video’s background match the clip circulating on social media, but instead of talking about Trump, Bragg speaks about his plans for the job.
While it’s not clear how the bogus audio in this edited video was specifically created, artificial intelligence tools that allow users to generate audio simulating real people’s voices are now widely available online, resulting in a flood of “deepfake” videos misrepresenting high-profile people.
Bragg’s office could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.
The Manhattan grand jury is investigating payments made to women who alleged sexual encounters with Trump. The panel turned to other matters on Thursday, delaying any vote on an indictment, according to AP reporting.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and that he had any extramarital affairs. The former president has lambasted Bragg over the probe and encouraged his supporters to protest.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.