A report revealed that Matthew Colangelo, a leading prosecutor in former President Trump’s New York criminal trial over hush money payments, received $12,000 in payments from the Democratic National Committee in 2018 while working under the New York attorney general.
Colangelo now works for the Manhattan District Attorney investigating Trump.
As a federal prosecutor, he worked under President Biden and as acting associate attorney general on Biden’s inauguration day.
In Trump’s ongoing trial, Colangelo is trying to paint Trump as a criminal while softening the image of cooperating witness Michael Cohen.
The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee criticized the prosecution as politically motivated, arguing Colangelo’s career demonstrates an obsession with investigating Trump rather than prosecuting crimes, adding to the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized against Trump.
“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,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said.
“Given the perception that the Biden DOJ is assisting in Bragg’s politicized prosecution, the Committee is seeking to further understand the scope of Colangelo’s employment and his obsession with investigating President Trump.”
Jordan wrote, “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,’” he wrote. “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.
“In December 2022, Bragg ‘beefed up [his] office’ by hiring Mr. Colangelo to fill the void left by the departure of politicized line prosecutors Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne. 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,'” Jordan wrote.
“Mr. Colangelo is now a lead prosecutor in President Trump’s trial.”
He added, “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.”
