Matt Gaetz demands correspondence between Biden's AG and Fulton County, NYC DAs

In a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) grilled US Attorney General Merrick Garland and demanded that the Department of Justice hand over all communications between the department and the offices of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Fulton County DA Fani Willis, as well as New York AG Leticia James. He also grilled Garland on the employment of former DOJ Assistant AG Matthew Colangelo at Bragg’s office.  

Gaetz asked Garland if the DOJ would provide all “documents and correspondence” between the DOJ and the legal offices of Bragg and James in New York as well as Willis in Georgia.  

Garland pushed back, saying that the offices were independent of the DOJ and added, “We do not control those offices.” 

The Florida representative then reiterated it was only communications between the DOJ and the offices in New York and Georgia. 

Garland had alleged in the hearing that it was a “dangerous conspiracy theory” to say that the DOJ was coordinating with Bragg’s office as well as other legal officers to prosecute Trump.   

In addition, Gaetz pressed Garland on former DOJ Assistant AG Matthew Colangelo being employed at Bragg’s office and Colangelo being a prosecutor on the case against Trump which resulted in a guilty verdict.  

Gaetz laid into Garland and asked him, “You had no problem dispatching Matthew Colangelo, who is Matthew Colangelo?"  

Garland responded, "That is false, I did not dispatch Matthew Colangelo. That's false."   

Gaetz pressed him further on the point, saying, “Matthew Colangelo, became the Assistant Attorney General at the very beginning of the Biden administration, without having been Senate confirmed, goes and gets this senior role at the DOJ. Then after, I believe its Gupta, replaces Colangelo, Colangelo makes this remarkable downstream career journey from the US Department of Justice in Washington DC and then pops up in Alvin Bragg's office to go get Trump.”  

“You’re saying that that that’s just a career choice that was made that has nothing to do with the lawfare coordinated against Trump.”  

Garland went on to say that he presumed Colangelo got a job after applying for one in the office and denied that it had anything to do with getting Trump.   

According to a press release from Bragg’s office in December 2022, Colangelo was brought into Bragg’s office to “focus on the Office’s cases, policies, and strategies in housing and tenant protection and labor and worker protections.” The press release then added he would also be tasked with working on Bragg’s “most sensitive and high-profile white-collar investigations.”  

Prior to Colangelo coming into Bragg’s office late in 2022, the probe into Trump had already been dropped by Bragg and Mark Pomerantz, a prosecutor who was in the office before, resigned in February 2022 when Bragg declined to bring charges against Trump, per Reuters.   

After Colangelo came onto the team, Bragg said that the probe into the payments was still open in November 2023.   

After a March hearing on the case, Trump made a press statement, saying that those in the court that day included Pomerantz as well as Colangelo, who was on the prosecution team at that point. "You had [Matthew] Colangelo... Remember this, Colangelo was a DOJ guy. He’s a Biden DOJ guy. Why is he in the Manhattan DA’s office trying the case?" Trump said at the time.  

Once Trump made the statement, he was hit with a gag order and was not allowed to say Colangelo’s name in a decision made by Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the Trump trial that led to a guilty verdict last week.