House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Friday asked that Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel for the Manhattan district attorney, testify before the committee as House Republicans continue their investigation into the district attorney’s indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Jordan told Colangelo in a letter that he was “uniquely situated” to aid in their investigation because of his work for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, as well as his history of working on legal pursuits against Trump.
Jordan noted Colangelo’s previous experience with the New York attorney general and his position as a top official in President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. Both entities had “competing investigations” into Trump while Colangelo worked at them, Jordan observed.
Read a copy of the letter below:
#BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan invites Matthew Colangelo, Senior Counsel to New York County District Attorney’s Office, to appear for a transcribed interview in furtherance of the Committee’s oversight of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s unprecedented prosecutorial conduct. pic.twitter.com/nFViWPmNPJ
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 7, 2023
Bragg hired Colangelo when the district attorney sought to revive a stalled investigation into Trump toward the end of 2022, according to the New York Times.
Colangelo, a top Biden official, had “broad knowledge” related to Trump but lacked experience working with white-collar crime or serving as a line prosecutor, the Times reported.
“While Mr. Colangelo has broad knowledge of the Trump Organization’s business practices and extensive litigation experience, he comes to the investigation having spent little time working on white-collar criminal prosecutions,” the outlet wrote. “He has never been a line prosecutor or worked as a criminal defense lawyer.”
Matthew Colangelo (Screenshot/Department of Justice)
As a result of Bragg’s office’s investigation into Trump, which had, at the end of 2022, zeroed in on a years-old hush money scheme involving porn star Stormy Daniels, a grand jury voted this week to indict Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Amid the indictment, Jordan and other Republicans, including Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Administration Committee chairman Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), have begun investigating the prosecution of Trump, contending they have, among several federal angles, a legislative interest in examining the perceived political nature of Trump’s case.
The three Republicans have engaged in a contentious back-and-forth with Bragg as they seek to question him about the situation, and, in a move first reported by Breitbart News, Jordan escalated matters Thursday by subpoenaing former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who quit working for Bragg over Bragg’s initial hesitation to investigate Trump.
Jordan is now widening the congressional probe with his request for testimony from Colangelo and is also asking him to provide numerous documents and communication.
“The circumstances and chain of events that led to your hiring by the New York County District Attorney’s Office could … shed substantial light on the underlying motives for that Office’s investigation into an indictment of President Trump,” Jordan wrote.
He asked that Colangelo contact him by April 21 to schedule the testimony, which would take place in the format of a transcribed interview with both Republican and Democrat committee members behind closed doors.
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
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