Brooklyn DA criticizes Trump for appearing on stage alongside indicted rapper during Bronx campaign rally

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez criticized Donald Trump Wednesday nearly a week after the former president (and current Republican presidential frontrunner) invited two rappers accused of violent crimes onto the stage of his Bronx rally.

In May of 2023, amNewYork Metro reported on prominent drill rapper Sheff G, also known as Michael Kyle Williams, who was taken into custody by police for allegedly running a gang that terrorized Brooklyn.

The indictment alleges that Sheff G’s crew were responsible for numerous shootings — including using stolen cars during drive-by crimes — targeting rival gang members from Folk Nation Gangster Disciples and ICG Babiiez, prosecutors alleged. Williams allegedly demonstrated a brazen attitude; according to the charges, he went as far as to celebrate a mass shooting that left a rival dead with a lavish dinner.

Williams was indicted alongside some 32 others. The case remains ongoing.

“The senseless gun violence, allegedly committed by these defendants, terrorized our neighbors for years and left more than a dozen people with serious injuries,” Gonzalez said at the time.

Brooklyn DA criticizes Trump for appearing on stage alongside indicted rapper during Bronx campaign rally 3 — Positioning himself as a hometown hero–adding that the Big Apple is the “city he helped built”— despite many locals and elected officials touting that “Trump is not welcome here,” the former president said he, a New Yorker, would turn things around. It didn’t take long, however, for him to turn his attention to his two foremost rivals.Photo by Dean Moses

Over a year later, on May 23, Williams appeared alongside Trump in front of several thousand diehard supporters of the former president inside Crotona Park.

Seeing the rapper go from shackles to appearing alongside a former president rubbed the Brooklyn district attorney the wrong way.

“It was shocking that a presidential candidate would be meeting known gang members who have an open indictment for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder,” Gonzalez said at an unrelated press conference on May 29. “It’s just simply shocking.”

Gonzalez said he believes the presentation was both unbecoming of a former president and disrespectful to the families of the rapper’s alleged victims.

“More than that I can’t say, it’s still an open and pending case,” Gonzalez added.

As for Trump — who has previously purported his support for “law and order” — deliberations in his hush-money trial in Manhattan were ongoing as of Wednesday evening.