House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is demanding documents from the New York attorney general related to the hiring of a lead prosecutor in Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
Jordan, R-Ohio, accused Matthew Colangelo, who is a former high-ranking official in Attorney General Letitia James’ office, of assisting in what he called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “politicized prosecution” as Trump stands trial in New York.
In a letter sent Wednesday to James, Jordan said Colangelo has spent years fixated on prosecuting Trump since his time as chief counsel in the state attorney general’s office overseeing her lawsuits against the Trump administration, a lawsuit that led to the dissolution of the Trump Foundation and a civil fraud case that resulted in a $454 million judgment against Trump and his companies.
Colangelo, an assistant district attorney who delivered the opening statement in Trump’s New York trial last month, is a former top Justice Department official in Washington who was the acting associate attorney general and then principal deputy associate attorney general under President Joe Biden.
Having a House committee make demands of a local prosecutor in the middle of a trial is unusual. Prior attempts by Jordan to obtain information from Bragg’s office have been met with criticism that he’s not respecting the role of local government in federalism.
But Trump has been grumbling lately that his allies in Washington aren’t doing enough to come to his defense, prompting a recent parade of supporters to his Manhattan courtroom to show support.
Jordan has also stepped up his demands from prosecutors charging Trump.
In his recent letter, Jordan asserted that the record “demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime.”
“The fact that a former senior Biden Justice Department official—whose previous employment consisted of leading ‘a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies’—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 said.
Bragg, a Democrat, announced in late 2022 that Colangelo was joining his office as part of the team investigating Trump in the hush money case.
Trump has lashed out at Colangelo directly, charging this year that the case against him “is all Biden-run things, meaning Biden and his thugs, because I don’t know if he knows he’s alive. And it’s a shame what’s happening to our country.”
Trump and his allies have said federal prosecutors are waging a campaign against him to hamper his political prospects.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the payments Cohen paid. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Early in the trial, Trump grumbled privately that he was not seeing the public defense that he expected from his close allies as he sat for hours every day in a frigid Manhattan courtroom, gagged by an order from the judge to stop him from attacking witnesses and others in the case.
“No one is defending me,” Trump said at the time.
Increasingly, Trump’s allies are delivering the attacks that he is unable to launch himself.
Bragg has denied Trump’s allegations that the indictment is politically motivated.
Jordan’s letter also seeks communications among Colangelo and the New York and Fulton County, Georgia, district attorneys’ offices, the Justice Department, the Democratic National Committee and the Biden for President campaign.
It also requests “[a]ll personnel files related to Mr. Colangelo’s hiring, employment, and termination at the New York Attorney General’s Office.”
Trump is under indictments in Fulton County and by special counsel Jack Smith’s office at the Justice Department stemming from charges related to his efforts to stay in office after the 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty in those cases.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
