AG Merrick Garland must explain why a top Biden ex-DOJ official is leading the prosecution of Biden’s top political rival ahead of 2024 election, says House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.
The House Judiciary Committee is demanding answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland over what many Americans perceive to be a politically motivated prosecution against former President Donald Trump in New York.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a letter to Garland on Tuesday asked for clarification over the close coordination between Biden’s Justice Department (DOJ) and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the “hush money” case against Trump.
The letter focuses on Alvin Bragg’s enlisting of Matthew Colangelo, a former senior official at the DOJ under Joe Biden, to help prosecute the case against Trump — who is currently leading Biden in the polls.
“Since last year, popularly elected prosecutors—who campaigned for office on the promise of prosecuting President Trump—engaged in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current leading candidate for that office,” Jordan wrote. “New York County District Attorney (DANY) Alvin Bragg is engaged in one such politicized prosecution, which is being led in part by Matthew B. Colangelo, a former senior Justice Department official.”
#BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan Investigates Justice Department Coordination with Alvin Bragg’s Politicized Prosecution
Matthew Colangelo, a former senior Biden Justice Department official, is leading the political prosecution of President Trump with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. pic.twitter.com/iiX5upISwL
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 30, 2024
“Accordingly, given the perception that the Justice Department is assisting in Bragg’s politicized prosecution, we write to request information and documents related to Mr. Colangelo’s employment.”
Jordan then pointed out Colangelo’s employment history “demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime.”
“At the New York Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Colangelo ran investigations into President Trump, leading ‘a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies.’”
“On January 20, 2021, the first day of the Biden Administration, Mr. Colangelo began serving as the Acting Associate Attorney General — the number three official in your department,” Jordan wrote.
“Bragg hired Mr. Colangelo to ‘jump-start’ his office’s investigation of President Trump, reportedly due to Mr. Colangelo’s ‘history of taking on Donald J. Trump and his family business.’ Mr. Colangelo is now a lead prosecutor in President Trump’s trial.”
“That a former senior Biden Justice Department official is now leading the prosecution of President Biden’s chief political rival only adds to the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized,” Jordan added.
The letter then demands Garland provide documents and information pertaining to Colangelo’s communication with “the New York County District Attorney’s Office, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, the New York Attorney General’s Office, or the Department of Justice’s Special Counsel’s Office” related to Trump or any entity associated with Trump.
Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree related to alleged hush money payments made before the 2016 presidential election to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty.
In opening statements last week Colangelo presented the case against Trump to the jury on behalf of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
The letter comes days after the Committee released a 300-page report laying out evidence of Bragg’s “partisan aim” to prosecute Trump.
? #BREAKING: Judiciary Republicans Release Report on the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s Political Vendetta Against President Donald J. Trump
Read it here: https://t.co/tFMfOKo4Rg
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 25, 2024
Specifically, the report claims Bragg brought a weak case against Trump because he succumbed to pressure from former special prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, citing media reports, Pomerantz’s book, and his deposition last year with the committee.
Notably, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has been accused of suppressing the Judiciary Committee’s report.
BANNON DEMANDS ACCOUNTABILITY FROM @SPEAKERJOHNSON FOR SUPPRESSED REPORT: “I have heard directly that it was suppressed by the speaker’s office, and that’s why it was not put out.”
“Let me be brutally frank. When it was announced that Paul Singer backed Johnson, holding onto the… pic.twitter.com/Gns2hTZFBK
— Grace Chong ?? (@gc22gc) May 1, 2024
