House Judiciary Committee calls for testimony from Manhattan DA senior counsel behind Trump indictment

The House Judiciary Committee is demanding testimony from Matthew Colangelo, a former Department of Justice official with a historical past of investigating Donald Trump, who was employed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg within the lead-up to the hush cash indictment of the previous president.

Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, says particulars behind Mr. Bragg’s choice to rent Mr. Colangelo would “shed substantial light on the underlying motives for that office’s investigation into and indictment of President Trump.”

Mr. Colangelo left the Justice Department when he was tapped by Mr. Bragg in December to concentrate on “the office’s most sensitive and high-profile white-collar investigations.”

Before becoming a member of the Justice Department, Mr. Colangelo served as a lawyer on the New York legal professional common’s civil inquiry into the Trump Foundation.

“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,” Mr. Jordan wrote in a letter to Mr. Colangelo on Friday.

Mr. Jordan needs Mr. Colangelo to show over and protect paperwork associated to his hiring by Mr. Bragg and to schedule a transcribed interview earlier than the committee no later than April 21.

Friday’s letter is the most recent in a tense back-and-forth with Mr. Bragg’s workplace ignited by the previous president’s grand jury indictment on 34 felony prices of falsifying enterprise data.

On Thursday, Mr. Jordan subpoenaed Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in Mr. Bragg’s workplace who labored on the hush cash investigation.

Mr. Pomerantz wrote a e-book concerning the Trump inquiry during which he mentioned he stop the probe as a result of Mr. Bragg was reluctant to carry prices.

Mr. Pomerantz and one other prosecutor, Carey Dunne, oversaw the hush cash investigation and pushed for prison prices towards Mr. Trump. Last month, Mr. Pomerantz launched a e-book arguing that prison prices had been warranted and former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. had approved him to pursue Mr. Trump‘s indictment.

Mr. Jordan final month requested Mr. Pomerantz testify earlier than the panel. In response, Mr. Pomerantz‘s legal professional mentioned his shopper wouldn’t cooperate within the investigation on the path of Mr. Bragg‘s workplace.

Mr. Bragg issued a fiery assertion accusing House Republicans of “an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation [that was] interfering in an ongoing criminal matter in state court.”

“Repeated efforts to weaken state and local law enforcement actions are an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law,” he mentioned.