Former President Donald Trump is facing legal challenges from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and one of the prosecutors involved in the case has an interesting background. Matthew Colangelo, who previously served as acting associate attorney general in the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) for two years, has joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as senior counsel. His focus is on handling sensitive and high-profile white-collar investigations. Colangelo has experience working on investigations related to Trump, including leading the investigation into the Trump Foundation’s dissolution and the civil fraud case against Trump. When Colangelo joined the office in December 2022, Bragg was still investigating Trump’s involvement in the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Trump was indicted in April of the previous year on 34 charges related to falsifying business documents connected to the payment.
“[A]ssisting with the District Attorney’s focus on financial crimes will promote confidence in the legal system by making clear that the same rules apply to everyone — no matter how powerful,” Colangelo said.
Former AG Matthew Whitaker said that Colangelo is “the one who connects all of this and has really been directing traffic to make sure all of these cases proceed against Donald Trump and keep him off the election campaign trail.”
“The former #3 official in the entire Biden DOJ left that job to fulfill his dream of being a line prosecutor in a local DA’s office,” Article III Project senior counsel Will Chamberlain likewise wrote Monday on X. “To get Trump. But this is totally independent of the administration.”
Colangelo presented his initial remarks on behalf of the prosecution on Monday, contending that Trump manipulated business documents connected to the payment in order to “taint the 2016 election.”
“It was election fraud, pure and simple,” Colangelo said.
Colangelo previously worked for seven years at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as reported by The New York Times. Additionally, he served in the Obama administration. During his tenure at the New York Attorney General’s office, he spearheaded the legal action against the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the census.
Judge Juan Merchant’s gag order specifically bars Trump from discussing the prosecutors involved in the case. Trump has consistently labeled the case as “election interference,” referring to it as a “Biden witch hunt” and the “Biden Case.”
BREAKING: Rep. Lance Gooden demands AG Merrick Garland and DA Alvin Bragg turn over all records related to the hiring of former Biden administration attorney Matthew Colangelo on the prosecution team of President Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/KFQpCCG2MP
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) April 23, 2024