Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) has made no secret of his feelings about the political motivation of prosecutors in former President Donald Trump’s carefully orchestrated trials. Letitia James, Fani Willis, and others have been on his list since the drama started unfolding a year ago.
Alvin Bragg now has the honor of being in Jordan’s crosshairs for weaponizing the justice department.
To be fair, Bragg started it when he responded to a prior subpoena with a lawsuit. In April of this year, Bragg sued Jordan for what he alleges was an “unprecedented, brazen, and unconstitutional” attack. His suit claimed that Jordan was trying to undermine a criminal investigation. He later dropped the suit and allowed Mark Pomerantz, the former prosecutor heading up the probe, to be deposed before the House Judiciary Committee.
The subject of Jordan’s latest subpoena for Bragg is “the unprecedented political persecution” of the former president. Bragg has been ordered to appear before the committee on June 13, 2024, to explain his actions.
Jordan has also targeted prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, who gave the opening statements in the hush money trial. Jordan has questioned the hiring of Colangelo in the past, spearheading an effort to point out his political bias.
The deeper Jordan searches, the more the cases point to a bizarre interconnectedness that proves the weaponization of the justice department against Trump and the apparent orchestration of a smear campaign against him.
Colangelo, a former senior Justice Department official in the Biden administration, joined the Manhattan district attorney’s office in December 2022. While at the New York attorney general’s office, he helped sue Trump’s charitable organization in 2018, leading to its dismantling for improper use of funds. He was also involved in a probe into the Trump Organization, which later resulted in a $450 million penalty against Trump, led by NY Attorney General Letitia James. After serving in a high-ranking role at the Justice Department, Colangelo returned to New York to join Bragg’s team.
Earlier in May, Jordan attempted to refer Bragg’s star witness, the disgraced Michael Cohen, for perjury charges after he was caught lying to Congress on six occasions in February of 2019. Jordan expressed concern that Bragg was using Cohen as his key witness, even after his advisor, Lanny Davis, claimed that Bragg’s prosecution of Trump originated from Cohen’s 2019 flawed testimony to Congress.
In mid-May, Jordan demanded that James release documents about Colangelo’s hiring, stating in a letter that the former DOJ official was obsessed with Trump and that his “employment history” highlights this obsession.
At the New York Attorney General’s Office, Colangelo, formerly Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives, led investigations into President Trump and state litigation against Trump administration policies. On January 20, 2021, the start of the Biden Administration, Colangelo became the Acting Associate Attorney General, the third-highest official at the Justice Department. After Vanita Gupta’s confirmation as Associate Attorney General, he became the Deputy Associate Attorney General.
In December 2022, District Attorney Alvin Bragg strengthened his office by hiring Colangelo to revive the investigation of President Trump due to Colangelo’s experience with Trump and his family business. Colangelo then became a lead prosecutor in Trump’s hush money trial.
Colangelo has a history of prosecuting cases involving Trump. In 2018, he helped dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation after it was found to have illegally coordinated with Trump’s 2016 campaign and breached fiduciary duties. That same year, Colangelo was the lead prosecutor in a case against the Trump administration’s proposal to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. After lengthy court battles, including a Supreme Court decision, the citizenship question was not added to the census.
Jordan expressed concern about Bragg’s politically charged prosecution of President Trump, stating in the letter to James that it could harm federal interests. He said that the involvement of a former senior Biden Justice Department official who had led state litigation against Trump administration policies adds to the perception of a politicized and weaponized Biden Justice Department.
However, James is unlikely to offer Jordan any solutions. She is, after all, part of the problem and is not going to do anything to jeopardize the left’s carefully orchestrated plans. Bragg is poised to ignore Jordan’s subpoena as Trump’s anticipated sentencing and appeal are ongoing issues in court.
But Jordan is nothing if not relentless, and if he has his way, the conspirators will face their own days in court. Some expressed disappointment that Jordan was not made the Speaker of the House, but his continued battle to uncover the Biden administration’s role in Trump’s legal battles proves he is right where he needs to be.
