I suppose this could be your Friday rhetorical question, as we all know a fish rots from the head, and the head of the Manhattan District Attorney's office is none other than the rotten-to-the-core Alvin Bragg.
The same Alvin Bragg who prosecuted Donald Trump for falsifying business records. The same Alvin Bragg whose office unsuccessfully prosecuted subway hero Daniel Penny for manslaughter when he subdued a drug-crazed, psychotic vagrant threatening fellow passengers.
The same Alvin Bragg and his crew of progressive malcontents who have been declining to prosecute any of the rampaging terrorist supporters shrieking, chanting, vandalizing, and threatening Jewish students as they've swarmed their way over Columbia's campus for the past year.
That guy.
So I guess it's really no wonder that an ugly lawsuit has just been dropped accusing his office of helping one of their prosecutors 'weaponize' the power of their positions to have her estranged reporter husband hooked up on felony child abuse and assault charges. Not to mention, bringing the New York Police Department into it.
A Manhattan prosecutor recruited her pals in the DA’s office to rig a criminal case against her estranged New York Times scribe hubby as part of a nasty custody battle — and got the NYPD in on it, a scathing federal lawsuit claims.
Assistant District Attorney Amanda Goun conspired to have her husband, health-care reporter Joseph Goldstein, busted on trumped-up assault and child-abuse charges in 2022 to win custody of their two young children — and even coached the kids to lie about their dad’s reputed abuse, alleges the Manhattan federal complaint reviewed by The Post.
This is some wild freakin' stuff.
...According to the searing 62-page federal complaint filed earlier this month, ADA Goun allegedly had Goldstein, her husband of seven years, falsely arrested on trumped-up felony assault and child endangerment charges in 2022 - in a calculated bid to seize full custody of their kids.
But the lawsuit goes even further, accusing Goun of not just deception, but corruption.
'Rather than resolve the family court proceedings through lawful and ethical means, Defendant Goun exploited her prosecutorial power and corrupted multiple law enforcement agencies to destroy her husband's life and career,' the lawsuit alleges.
The suit suggests she used her status within the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to pressure prosecutors and NYPD officers into pursuing charges that responding police initially deemed unwarranted.
Then again, whose office are we talking about?
Maybe these sort of underhanded shenanigans are not such a stretch. The whole crew is pretty adept at turning nothing into something.
...According to the lawsuit, the saga began in September of that year [2018] when Goun filed for divorce from Goldstein.
By October 8, following a heated dispute inside their home with their children present, Goun called 911, claiming Goldstein had slammed a door on her arm - although responding NYPD officers found no evidence of a crime.
According to the responding NYPD officers, 'no crime had occurred and no arrest was warranted', they wrote.
That should have been the end of it but what allegedly happened next flipped standard legal procedure on its head.
Instead of accepting the officers' assessment, Goun allegedly called up her close friend and colleague Lawrence Newman, then a fellow prosecutor in the Manhattan DA's office, seeking advice on how to escalate the incident into felony territory.
She gets off the call and changes her story to 'Oh, I was also thrown to the ground...OUCH!'
And I'll be a monkey's uncle if they're just so brazen that they don't do it in the open when they're working on the plan.
Whatever gave these people the idea that they were so untouchable and powerful that they could get away with something like this?
It turns out the phone call from wife Goun asking 'how can I get this guy' to the fellow DA at Bragg's office was recorded on the police bodycam video.
HOLY SMOKING GUN
...The footage, the complaint alleges, sees Goun and Newman conspiring in real time to convert a routine domestic call into a career-crippling criminal prosecution.
Following the call, the suit says, Goun altered her account claiming not only that she had been bruised but had also been thrown to the ground.
'Unsatisfied with this assessment, Defendant Goun placed a call to her friend and fellow ADA, Lawrence Newman,' the suit states.
'Their conversation, captured on police body-worn camera, includes Goun conspiring with Newman to fabricate details and pressure the NYPD to escalate the incident into a felony assault charge.'
Soon after, she also accused Goldstein of physically abusing their children.
The lawsuit asserts that Goun coached the couple's young children, then just four and six-years-old to support those abuse allegations.
The poor estranged husband winds up perp walking and losing contact with his children.
...Despite having no prior criminal history, Goldstein was arrested and charged with felony assault, harassment, and two counts of child endangerment.
His mugshot and charges were entered into public record, severely damaging his personal and professional reputation.
With a protective order issued against him, Goldstein was separated from his children for eight long months.
Fortunately for the father, as the case began to blow up, the Manhattan DA office handed it over to the Brooklyn DA, in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, as the wife was now back working for their office again.
YOICKS
What did Brooklyn do with this hot potato?
Took one look at it and dropped all the charges, as did the family court once their investigation had concluded about the allegations Goun leveled against her former husband.
...A family court investigation into the child abuse allegations was also dismissed as 'unfounded' by the Administration for Children's Services.
So, how about the Manhattan DA office crew?
Oh, they're still on the job, dishing out 'justice.' Of course, the lawsuit makes things...like...awkward.
...Goldstein's suit remains pending in Manhattan federal court. Should the claims be proven, it would mean that a sitting Manhattan prosecutor conspired with colleagues and police to fabricate felony charges against her own husband during a family court dispute.
As of May 2025, Goun and Keating remain employed by the Manhattan DA's Office. Newman left the DA's office shortly after the October 2022 incident and currently works in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.
I tell you what.
If Bragg's office can't find drama to manufacture in the streets, they'll do it right in the office.
Do you think that lawfare against political opponents is all that the Manhattan DA's office does under Alvin Bragg @ManhattanDA?
— James Higgins (@JamesEHiggins) May 26, 2025
Think again!https://t.co/s2ofGUCiXm
What a trip.
