Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday raising serious ethical questions about Matthew Colangelo, who is the lead prosecutor in the criminal case against former President Trump in Manhattan.
In the letter, Jordan asked Garland for documents and communications from Colangelo’s time at the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Daily Caller got a copy of the letter before it was sent. In it, Jordan asks for a number of personnel files related to Colangelo’s hiring, employment, and termination at the DOJ, as well as documents and communications from January 2021 to December 2022 and those related to Trump or his organization.
There are questions about illegal coordination between the White House and the Manhattan D.A.’s office because Colangelo was acting associate attorney general for the DOJ for two years before becoming senior counsel for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in December 2022.
Jordan wants more information in the letter about why Colangelo left the DOJ to work on prosecuting Trump, since he was hired in 2022 while Bragg was still looking into Trump over a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials. 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 writes in the letter.
“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. 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 adds.
- All documents and communications for the period of January 2021 to December 2022 between or among Mr. Colangelo and any employee, agent, or representative of 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, referring or relating to: a. President Donald J. Trump; b. The Trump Organization; or c. Any other entity owned, controlled by, or associated with President Donald J. Trump
- All personnel files related to Mr. Colangelo’s hiring, employment, and termination at the Department of Justice, including all documents and communications with the Office of Presidential Personnel about Mr. Colangelo’s hiring
- All documents and communications between or among the Justice Department and the New York County District Attorney’s Office referring or relating to the prosecution of President Donald J. Trump
- All documents and communications referring or relating to Michael Cohen’s conviction in United States v. Cohen, No. 18-cr-602 (S.D.N.Y. 2018), including any decisional or pre-decisional memoranda relating to the case;
- All documents and communications referring or relating to Michael Cohen’s conviction in United States v. Cohen, No. 18-cr-850 (S.D.N.Y. 2018)
It is unclear what action will be taken if the Department of Justice refuses to comply by May 14.
