Powerful Democrat officials among Joe Biden’s closest political allies played a critical role placing Biden’s third-ranking Department of Justice official on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “get Trump” squad as leading prosecutor.
Revealed Tuesday in a document by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Matthew Colangelo listed Tom Perez, at the time Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Jeff Zients, now President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, as his top two references when seeking to join Bragg’s “get Trump” squad. Colangelo worked for both in his long career as a Democrat official.
At the time of his application to New York Attorney General Letitia James, Colangelo was Biden’s former Acting Associate Attorney General, one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in the country. His decision to leave one of the most coveted positions in the American legal profession to serve as an assistant prosecutor in Bragg’s office has led Republican lawmakers to question the political motives behind the highly unusual career move – and who was behind it.
Jordan’s revelations confirm Republican officials’ long-held suspicions that Colangelo’s departure from DOJ to Bragg’s staff was orchestrated by the Biden White House as a conspiracy to eliminate Donald Trump, Biden’s chief political rival and opponent in November’s general election.
“It’s always been a political hit job,” Jordan posted on X after revealing Colangelo’s application.
New document obtained by @JudiciaryGOP:
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 9, 2024
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. pic.twitter.com/YEmaU58ZJF
Colangelo played a significant role on Bragg’s team, even presenting opening arguments in court against Trump. In May, a jury convicted Trump on 34 counts.
As Breitbart previously reported:
The former DOJ lawyer played a crucial role in rejuvenating Bragg’s stagnated investigations into Trump after arriving in Manhattan on December 5, 2022. The renewed focus on Trump that Colangelo sparked in Bragg’s office led to the office filing charges in April 2023.
Although Bragg had “campaigned as the best candidate to go after the former president” according to the New York Times, soon after taking office, he quietly began to dial back investigations into the former president – reportedly after struggling to find a prosecutable crime.
Mark Pomerantz, a special assistant on the Trump case, very publicly resigned from Bragg’s office in February 2022 out of frustration with Bragg’s reluctance to continue pursuing a case against Trump.
Colangelo’s arrival historically changed the trajectory of the investigation – which Trump has called a “zombie case” – despite Bragg’s apparent misgivings over making charges stick.
Breitbart News initially reported the significance of the date of Colangelo’s DOJ resignation. On the blockbuster date of November 18, 2022, nine days after Biden in a post-midterm press conference pledged to use “legitimate efforts of our Constitution” to block Trump’s reelection, Colangelo resigned from the White House to join Bragg’s office, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith to revive stalled investigations of Trump in Washington, DC and Florida, and White House attorneys met for eight-hours with Fulton County Prosecutor Nathan Wade.
The day after Breitbart’s damning expose, the struggling Washington Post published an op-ed by Garland writing off any criticisms of DOJ as politically motivated conspiracy theories.
Despite Garland’s dismissals, Tuesday’s revelations are certain to amplify scrutiny of the Biden White House’s role in Bragg’s prosecution and alleged weaponization of political “lawfare” against Trump in jurisdictions across the nation.
“Colangelo’s citing the former chair of the DNC and Joe Biden’s current White House Chief of Staff as recommendations for the New York prosecutor job is the latest evidence that Colangelo is one of the architects of the lawfare against President Trump, and that the Biden White House is behind the weaponization,” said former Ambassador Ken Blackwell, chairman of the Conservative Action Project and chairman of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). “Americans should demand an end to the Left’s hijacking the power of criminal prosecution as the centerpiece of Biden’s trying to interfere with the 2024 election.”
The document further undermines increasingly thin White House and Biden campaign denials of involvement. In a May 31 press conference after Trump’s conviction by Bragg, Biden appeared to let the veil slip.
“Donald Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What’s your response to that, sir?” a reporter asked Biden as he shuffled away from the podium.
Biden jarringly paused and turned to face reporters, enjoying a prolonged, wordless stare and flashing a knowing grin from ear to ear before slowly shuffling out a side door.
Biden’s unusual response carries increased significance in the light of his disastrous June 27 debate performance. Biden’s inability to complete sentences, finish thoughts, or articulate audible phrases, as well as repeated instances of seemingly confusing past events and timelines and committing cringey and politically damning gaffes, led many panicked Democrat lawmakers and pundits to call for his replacement atop the ticket.
Republicans and the White House press corps are likely to increasingly press Biden on the issue, hoping for more clarity on any role he or the White House had in Colangelo’s appointment and other lawfare launched against Trump.
Garland, a seasoned professional at the time-honored tradition of Congressional hearing stonewalling, disputed characterizations he had placed Colangelo in Bragg’s office during a House Judiciary Committee DOJ oversight hearing on June 4, 2024.
“I did not dispatch Matthew Colangelo,” Garland said, repeating “that is false.”
Asked how Colangelo wound up working for the Manhattan district attorney, Garland said, “I assume he … applied for a job there and got the job,” continuing that he “had nothing to do with it.”
Garland’s DOJ quickly followed the hearing by sending a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) continuing the Biden administration’s denial of any coordination between itself and Bragg’s office. But that letter inadvertently exposed the hollowness of Garland’s denial of White House involvement in Colangelo moving to Manhattan.
The letter claims DOJ officials had:
…conducted a comprehensive search for email communications since January 20, 2021, through the date of the verdict, between any officials in Department leadership, including all political appointees in those offices, and the District Attorney’s office regarding any investigation or prosecution of the former President.
As Breitbart reported:
The search “included the email account of Matthew Colangelo, a former Department official about whom the Committee has raised numerous unfounded questions,” the DOJ letter said.
Unsurprisingly, DOJ’s limited search consisting strictly of official email correspondence found no evidence of a back-and-forth between DOJ and Bragg’s office, which, given its significance and possible illegality, is unlikely to have been conducted over official email.
Nonetheless, DOJ concluded “the conspiracy theory… is not only false, it is irresponsible.”
Yet by DOJ’s logic, in asserting that a search limited to official email communications proves Colangelo and DOJ never communicated with Bragg, Colangelo never would have communicated with Bragg’s office before beginning his employment there – a ridiculous assertion quickly earning ridicule.
The letter confirmed Breitbart’s previous reporting of Colangelo’s DOJ departure date.
Despite Bragg and Colangelo’s successful prosecution of Trump, their conviction appears in jeopardy.
After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of former President Donald Trump that presidents are covered by limited immunity from criminal prosecutions for actions taken while in office, Trump has argued that some of the evidence in that case was illegally obtained.
Judge Juan Merchan has delayed sentencing while those issues are resolved.
Other cases sparked by November 18, 2022, after Biden’s astonishing pledge to stop Trump by means other than the ballot box, appear in even more trouble.
After the Supreme Court ruling, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Washington prosecution of Trump for alleged election interference connected with January 6 is possibly dead and at the very least critically undermined.
And Smith’s appointment itself might be ruled unconstitutional in Judge Aileen Cannon’s Florida court where Smith is prosecuting Trump for retaining classified documents. In a concurring opinion to the Supreme Court’s on immunity ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the legality of the appointment, providing Cannon a roadmap to rule Garland appointed Smith to an office that does not exist with authority Garland does not possess.
In Fulton County, Wade is no longer involved after his affair with his boss, District Attorney Fani Willis, came to light. After numerous other issues, that case is unlikely to go to trial before the November election, if it survives.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
