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The House Judiciary Committee is broadening its inquiry into the actions of the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office concerning the extraordinary indictment of former President Donald Trump that occurred last week.
As reported by The Federalist, committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter on Friday to Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, requesting a transcribed interview. In December, The New York Times reported that Colangelo was brought on board four months ago to “jump start” investigations into Donald Trump, after years of pursuing the former president at both the Department of Justice and the New York attorney general’s office.
“Given your history of working for law-enforcement entities that are pursuing President Trump and the public reporting surrounding your decision to work for the New York County District Attorney’s Office, we request your cooperation with our oversight in your personal capacity,” Jordan wrote, according to the letter which was obtained by The Federalist.
During an unprecedented arraignment on Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment that carries a maximum prison sentence of 136 years. The charges are related to hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016, a case that prosecutors had previously declined to pursue. Despite the charges, a group of twelve liberal law professors and Trump critics have deemed the prosecution a dead end, citing the weak nature of the case, the outlet noted.
After getting stiff resistance from Bragg’s office regarding oversight requests, Jordan reminded Colangelo in his letter of Congress’s power to investigate his office.
The Supreme Court has recognized that Congress has a ‘broad and indispensable’ power to conduct oversight, which ‘encompasses inquiries into the administration of existing laws, studies of proposed laws, and surveys in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling Congress to remedy them,'” the letter explained.
Rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives authorizes the Committee on the Judiciary to conduct oversight of criminal justice matters to inform potential legislation. Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former Presidents,” it added.
According to a report from Fox News on Wednesday, the back-and-forth has prompted the committee to consider issuing official subpoenas to Bragg’s office.
On Thursday, lawmakers followed through and issued a subpoena to Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor under Bragg who resigned in the previous year due to insufficient progress in efforts to bring Trump to justice.
Jordan revealed on Fox News Monday that Bragg admitted to lawmakers that his office used federal funds in the Manhattan DA’s Trump investigation, The Federalist noted.
“The Committee may therefore consider legislation to enhance reporting requirements concerning the use of federal forfeiture funds and/or to prohibit the use of federal forfeiture funds to investigate a current or former President or presidential candidate,” Jordan wrote in the letter.
The committee has requested that Colangelo provide documents pertaining to his hiring and also participate in a formal interview. Lawmakers have given him until April 21 to furnish a schedule of his availability.
As House Republicans prepare to exercise intense oversight over the Manhattan DA’s office, members of Bragg’s staff have deleted their online profiles, and the “Meet Our Team” page has been removed from Bragg’s website, The Federalist noted.
The indictment of Trump last week was quickly denounced by House Republicans and his rivals in the 2024 primary, but notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has remained silent on the matter, the outlet continued.
Also, a former federal prosecutor is among several legal experts who have spoken out following a report that the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan made political contributions to Democrats and left-wing organizations, calling them “troubling optics.”
According to Federal Election Commission records, Judge Juan Merchan made donations of $15 or less in 2020 to the Biden for President campaign committee, as well as to the Progressive Turnout Project and its subsidiary political action committee, Stop Republicans.
In an interview with MSNBC, former Southern California U.S. Attorney Carol Lam warned that those donations could harm the public’s perception of the trial and question Merchan’s alleged impartiality.
MSNBC host Lindsey Reiser said, “We’ve also learned, during an FEC filing report, that Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s New York arraignment, made a campaign donation to President Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, it was for $15.”
Reiser went on to ask: “Are the optics problematic here?”
Lam responded: “I think the optics are a bit problematic,” while going on to note that political donations from judges are an ethical conundrum.
