New documents released by the House Judiciary Committee offer new evidence that former President Donald Trump’s New York prosecution is a “political hit job,” according to Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Matthew Colangelo was previously the No. 3 official in President Joe Biden’s Justice Department before joining Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team in December 2022. The Manhattan prosecutor’s office indicted Trump four months later based on a novel legal theory to circumvent the five-year statute of limitations on falsifying business records. Emails between Colangelo and the New York attorney general’s office when the high-ranking Biden official relocated previewed the upcoming charges of the former president.
“Matthew-glad to see you are back in [New York City],” wrote James Sheehan, who is listed on LinkedIn as the chief of the Charities Bureau for the New York attorney general. “Sounds like you and Mr. Trump’s paths will continue to intersect.”
Colangelo had worked in the New York attorney general’s office as chief counsel for federal initiatives prior to joining the Biden Justice Department. According to the New York Times when reporting on his return to New York to “jump start” the Trump investigations, Colangelo “led the New York attorney general’s civil inquiry into Mr. Trump” in what became another politicized probe to bankrupt the Democrats’ chief rival. Trump was ultimately forced to pay a $175 million bond to appeal the $454 million judgement against him in Attorney General Letitia James’ case.
When Colangelo applied to work for James, documents released by the Judiciary Committee show he listed some of the nation’s most prominent Democrats as professional references, including Tom Perez, the chair of the DNC between 2017 and 2021 who now works in the Biden White House, and Jeff Zients, who previously worked in the Obama administration and now serves as Biden’s chief of staff.
House Republicans were supposed to question Bragg on Friday, one day after the former president’s sentencing scheduled for Thursday, before both events were postponed. Colangelo was supposed to appear alongside Bragg on Capitol Hill. In May, a Manhattan jury voted to convict Trump on all 34 felony counts of falsely labeling payments to an attorney as legal expenses, rather than campaign expenses related to the 2016 “hush money” payments to sex seller Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s sentencing was pushed back to Sept. 18 following the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. The Republican candidate’s legal team argues the immunity decision means “some of the trial evidence is precluded under the new standard articulated by the Supreme Court,” according to The Hill.
Bragg said he will not appear before Congress until Trump is sentenced.
“The Manhattan D.A.’s Office is proud to play a crucial role in upholding and enforcing the rule of law for the people of New York. It undermines the rule of law to spread dangerous misinformation, baseless claims, and conspiracy theories following the jury’s return of a full-count felony conviction in People v. Trump,” Bragg’s office said in a statement last month. “Nonetheless, we respect our government institutions and plan to appear voluntarily before the subcommittee after sentencing.”
