Attorney General Merrick Garland denied involvement in one of his former top deputies taking a key role in prosecuting former president Donald Trump in his Manhattan hush-money trial.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) questioned Garland on Tuesday during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on the trajectory of Matthew Colangelo’s career. Colangelo served as the third-highest-ranking official in the Department of Justice before he joined Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to take a lead role in prosecuting Trump.
Gaetz accused Garland of “dispatching” Colangelo as part of a coordinated strategy to attack Trump, who is challenging President Joe Biden for the White House in 2024.
“That is false. I did not dispatch Matthew Colangelo,” Garland responded.
Gaetz pushed the attorney general on Colangelo’s career, expressing skepticism that Colangelo’s shift from senior official at the Department of Justice to Bragg’s team prosecuting Trump is coincidental.
“Matthew Colangelo became the assistant Attorney General at the very beginning of the Biden administration without having been Senate confirmed, goes and gets the senior role at the DOJ,” Gaetz responds. “Colangelo makes this remarkable downstream career journey from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and then pops up in Alvin Bragg’s office to go get Trump – and you’re saying that’s just a career choice that was made that has nothing to do with the lawfare coordinated by the DOJ?”
“I’m saying it’s false. I did not dispatch Mr. Colangelo anywhere,” Garland repeated, adding after more pressure from Gaetz, “I assume he applied for a job there and got the job. I tell you I had nothing to do with it.”
Gaetz: "You had no problem dispatching Matthew Collangelo"
Garland: "That is false."
Gaetz: "He made this remarkable downstream career journey from the DOJ in Washington DC and then pops up in Alvin Bragg's office to get Trump."
Garland: "I assume he applied for a job there… pic.twitter.com/VdI4aXi11x
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 4, 2024
Before joining Biden’s DOJ, Colangelo worked for a stint in Democratic Party circles, earning $12,000 from the Democratic National Committee in January 2018 for “political consulting.” Colangelo later joined the DOJ as one of Garland’s top deputies before joining Bragg’s office as the senior counsel in the criminal case against Trump.
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A New York City jury convicted Trump on 34 felony charges last week over hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. The former president has called the trial a politically-motivated setup and accused Biden of orchestrating a legal attack on his top competition.
