Congress launches probe into controversial appointment of Trump's prosecutor Matthew Colangelo

By bellecarter // 2024-05-07

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The House Judiciary Committee, led by its chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), recently launched an investigation into the top prosecutor in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against former President Donald Trump. Jordan sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding communications and other records about the Department of Justice's (DOJ) coordination with Bragg as well as Matthew Colangelo's personnel files, including those related to his hiring and departure from the DOJ. "Mr. Colangelo's recent 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," the letter indicated. Bragg's politicized prosecution of President Trump has serious consequences for federal interests. 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." (Related: Republican lawmaker warns about former Biden attorney running DOJ prosecution of Trump.) Colangelo's sudden switch from top DOJ official to a role with the DA's office in the Big Apple has particularly raised eyebrows. He was a senior Justice Department official in the Biden administration before joining the Manhattan district attorney's office in December 2022. It is suspected that he may serve as a go-between for federal officials and the DA's office. "It's very odd. It’s usually the other way around. And frankly, that sounds to me like somebody who thought, 'Ah, here's an opportunity to go and get Donald Trump,'" attorney and former member of the Federal Election Commission, Hans von Spakovsky, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview last month. Experts also noted that it's rare to see successful attorneys willingly climb several steps down the career ladder. "It is a little unusual," Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Zack Smith said. "Particularly, the position he had at the Justice Department was a fairly high ranking one. He spent some time in the New York Attorney General's office, he also spent some time as a career staffer in the DOJ Civil Rights Division. He was in leadership in the Justice Department, and then immediately from that leadership position – an acting leadership position – went to the DA's office." Meanwhile, Trump is no fan of Colangelo's and he took to social media to label Colangelo a "top Democrat DOJ official." But under Trump's recent gag order, he can no longer single out Colangelo or other line prosecutors.

Colangelo: Trump, allies orchestrated "catch and kill" plot to conceal "criminal conduct"

During the opening salvo of Trump's hush money case, prosecutors alleged that the former POTUS tried to "corrupt" the 2016 election by getting his team to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels for $130,000. She was threatening to go public with claims of an affair. Colangelo, who delivered the opening argument, described the "catch and kill" plot allegedly orchestrated by Trump and his inner circle to "conceal his and others' criminal conduct." This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy . . . to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures . . . It was election fraud, pure and simple," he said. Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, said the former president was "cloaked in innocence" and was just trying to protect his family, brand and reputation. Blanche added that Trump had "nothing to do" with how the payment was set up and was not on the hook for how it was recorded. "You will learn the companies do that all the time," Blanche told jurors. "There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It is called democracy." National Enquirer's former publisher, David Pecker also spoke as the first witness. Prosecutors alleged that Pecker was involved in the scheme by buying exclusive rights to anti-Trump stories and preventing them from being published. Trump expressed frustration that his legal obligations are keeping him off the campaign trail. He did, however, say it was "very unfair" that he was at the courthouse "instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania and Georgia and lots of other places campaigning." Meanwhile, Trump's election campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) said they raised more than $76 million in April, over half of it from small donors. The monthly fundraising haul exceeded the $65.6 million raised in March by Trump and the RNC. "With half of the funds raised coming from small-dollar donors, it is clear that our base is energized. The Republican Party is united, and voters nationwide are ready to fire Joe Biden and elect Donald J. Trump," Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement. Visit Trump.news for more stories related to the ongoing legal battles the former president is fighting. Watch the video below that talks about how Trump is suppressed to respond to attacks under a gag order. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

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Colangelo: Trump, allies orchestrated "catch and kill" plot to conceal "criminal conduct"

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