As former President Donald Trump and his supporters decry what they call the political persecution of the former president by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, DA Alvin Bragg is claiming intimidation.

The DA’s office has been investigating Trump over payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. On Saturday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he expects to be arrested Tuesday in connection with the probe and called for protests to "take our nation back."

Bragg and his office have eschewed public comment, but the DA sent a message to his staff, according to Politico, which said it had seen a copy of the email.

The email said, “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”

Here is the full email from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to his employees, saying he will not tolerate intimidation after Trump called for protest. Story here: https://t.co/e6fuuYAKpV pic.twitter.com/8X3thHpwmy

— erica orden (@eorden) March 19, 2023

“Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment,” he wrote, indicating he had been working with the New York Police Department and the state court system.

Bragg said that “as with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, and speak publicly only when appropriate.”

The message never mentioned Trump by name, instead referring to “public comments surrounding an ongoing investigation by this office.”

Although that was the message from the top, the word filtering out at the bottom was very different, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik said, according to Newsmax.

"I hear the office is in chaos, as there are a number of people that don't want this to happen, don't believe it should happen," Kerik said in a Saturday interview.

At some point, local, state, and federal law enforcement officers need to stand up and walk out, if they’re forced to engage in illegal political persecutions!

You cannot break the law to enforce it, and that is exactly what @ManhattanDA is doing.

— Bernard B. Kerik (@BernardKerik) March 18, 2023

"And keep in mind: They now work for a guy on his first day in office, Alvin Bragg on his first day in office, put out a memo that said they should stop charging people with resisting arrest -- they should downgrade robberies with weapons,” he said.

Kerik said the flimsy nature of the charge is part of the issue.

Bragg, he said, is “taking what is a proposed supposed misdemeanor and trying to enhance it into a felony to charge [the] former president.”

"It's completely absurd, and I think the cops and the investigators that work for the Manhattan DA's office, they're outraged,” he said.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York said the issue is clear to her, according to WWNY-TV.

“This is unAmerican and the radical Left has reached a dangerous new low of Third World countries. Knowing they cannot beat President Trump at the ballot box, the radical Left will now follow the lead of Socialist dictators and reportedly arrest President Trump, the leading Republican candidate for President of the United States," she said in a statement.

"What these corrupt Leftist prosecutors like Alvin Bragg and their Socialist allies fail to understand is that America First Patriots have never been so energized to exercise their constitutional rights to peacefully organize and VOTE at the ballot box to save our great republic," Stefanik said.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.