The Manhattan prosecutor who spearheaded the hush money case that ended in President Trumps conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records appears to have been far more deeply embedded in federal efforts targeting the 45th and 47th president than the public was initially led to believe.
Matthew Colangelo, who delivered the opening statement in the Manhattan case, joined District Attorney Alvin Braggs office in December 2022 after resigning as principal deputy associate attorney general, a senior post he held after serving as acting associate attorney general, the third-ranking position in the Biden Justice Department. According to the New York Post, newly obtained records show that Colangelos move from Washington to New York did not represent a clean break from Trump-focused matters, but rather followed a period in which he was repeatedly involved in high-level discussions about the President.
Defenders of Colangelo have long attempted to portray him as only tangentially connected to Trump-related work at the Department of Justice, insisting his portfolio was broader and largely unrelated to the President. Yet calendar entries secured by conservative watchdog America First Legal (AFL) and shared with the Post reveal that he attended multiple key meetings concerning the once and future president, raising fresh questions about political coordination across jurisdictions.
At least three of those meetings, the records show, dealt directly with the dispute over national security documents stored at Trumps Mar-a-Lago residence, the controversy that ultimately led to an indictment by special counsel Jack Smith. Colangelo also participated in a December 2021 meeting on the DOJs position in advice columnist E. Jean Carrolls civil case accusing Trump of sexual abuse and defamation, a matter many conservatives view as part of a broader lawfare campaign against the President.
Another dozen calendar entries involve meetings about a subpoena for former White House Counsel Don McGahn, whose testimony was sought on obstruction of justice findings in special counsel Robert Muellers probe into alleged collusion between Trumps 2016 campaign and Russia. For critics of the permanent bureaucracy, the pattern suggests a familiar cast of legal and political actors repeatedly circling the same target, even as each new investigation is presented as independent and insulated from partisan motives.
These records show that the man who delivered the opening statement prosecuting President Trump while working in the Manhattan District Attorneys Office was more involved in Trump-related litigation preparation at DOJ than the American people were led to believe, AFLs Will Scolinos said in a statement. It begs the question of what else We the People have been misled about.
The Post previously reported that the Democratic National Committee paid Colangelo $12,000 in January 2018 for political consulting and that he donated $400 to former President Barack Obamas 2008 campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. For many on the right, those political ties only deepen concerns that prosecutorial power is being weaponized against a sitting conservative president who remains the central figure in the Republican Party.
The May 2024 conviction in Manhattan marked the first time a former US president had been found guilty of criminal charges, even as millions of Americans viewed the case as a politicized attempt to derail Trumps return to the White House. However, Judge Juan Merchan ultimately imposed a no-penalty sentence just 10 days before Trumps second inauguration, waiving any prison time or fines and underscoring how thin the underlying case appeared to many observers.
When questioned about Colangelos abrupt shift from the Justice Department to Braggs office, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland insisted under oath that he had nothing to do with it. I assume he applied for a job there and got the job, Garland told House lawmakers in 2024, a response that has done little to quiet suspicions among conservatives about behind-the-scenes coordination.
Braggs office had publicly claimed that Colangelo would focus on housing and tenant protection and labor and worker protection, as well as the Offices most sensitive and high-profile white-collar investigations. The Post contacted Braggs office for comment, and as more details emerge about Colangelos overlapping roles, the central question for many Americans remains whether the justice system is being used as a neutral arbiter of lawor as a political weapon against President Trump and the movement he leads.
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