Trump prosecutor Matthew Colangelo cited now-Biden chief of staff, DNC Chair as references to work for New York AG

In his old job application to New York Attorney General Letitia James, Matthew Colangelo listed Jeff Zients, who is now Biden's Chief of Staff, as well as DNC Chair Tom Perez prior to going to Biden's US Department of Justice as the Acting Associate Attorney General in 2021. Colangelo transferred to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office in New York to help prosecute Donald Trump in the falsified business records case in December 2022.   

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan posted the job application online, saying, "New document obtained by [the House Judiciary Committee]: When Matthew Colangelo applied to work for Letitia James, guess who he listed as references. DNC Chair Tom Perez. Now Biden White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients. It’s always been a political hit job."  

The document obtained by the Judiciary Committee had a snippet of the job application from Colangelo, who described both Zients and Perez as being direct supervisors in his career. 

"Jeff as my direct supervisor from 2016 to January 2017 (in my role as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy)," the document stated. "Tom was my direct supervisor from 2010 to 2016 (I was Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and Counsel to the AAG at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2010 to 2013, and Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2013 to 2016)."  

According to a report from the House Judiciary, Colangelo's "employment history demonstrated the obsession that he shared with Bragg and Pomerantz to investigate a person—Donald Trump—rather than prosecute a crime." He served as the Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives in the New York AG's office for some time, where he headed prosecutions against Donald Trump. After going to Biden's DOJ in 2021, he then went back to New York, but in the Manhattan DA's office.  

Prior to Colangelo's appointment in Bragg's office, the Manhattan DA had stopped pursuing the case against Trump's involvement with alleged "hush money" payments to Stormy Daniels. However, a press release from the Manhattan DA's office in December 2022 noted that Colangelo was hired as a prosecutor and was going to take care of "the office’s most sensitive and high-profile white-collar investigations."