Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg set to be dragged to the Hill one day after Trump’s sentencing
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is set to testify before a Republican-controlled House committee one day after Donald Trump is scheduled for sentencing on 34 felony convictions that were secured by Bragg’s office.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office confirmed to The Independent Tuesday that Bragg and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo have agreed to “voluntarily appear” before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on July 12.
“The Manhattan DA’s Office is proud to play a crucial role in upholding and enforcing the rule of law for the people of New York,” a spokesperson for the office said in a statement shared with The Independent.
Trump – who briefly sat for a virtual pre-sentencing interview with a probation officer on Monday – faces up to four years in prison, fines, probation, or some other sentence when he appears before Justice Juan Merchan on July 11.
Colangelo, a former federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice, joined the district attorney’s office in 2022 and was on the team that tried the case against the former president.
The two prosecutors are expected to face a volatile panel of Republican lawmakers, led by chair Jim Jordan, who have amplified baseless allegations that the case in New York was under the direction of President Joe Biden as part of a politically motivated scheme to keep Trump away from the White House.
In a recent letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Jordan demanded documents from the office “given the perception that the Justice Department is assisting in Bragg’s politicized prosecution.”
Jordan also convened a so-called “field hearing” in downtown Manhattan last year after Trump’s indictment to paint Bragg’s office as “pro-crime” and “anti-victim.”
“It undermines the rule of law to spread dangerous misinformation, baseless claims, and conspiracy theories following the jury’s return of a full-count felony conviction in People v Trump,” the DA’s spokesperson added on Tuesday.
“Nonetheless, we respect our government institutions and plan to appear voluntarily before the subcommittee after sentencing.”
On Thursday, the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee is set to also hold a hearing “to examine Alvin Bragg’s political prosecution of President Trump.”
That panel will include Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Trump’s former Federal Election Commission chair Trey Trainor and conservative lawyer Elizabeth Price Foley.
A letter to Jordan from Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte on Tuesday refuted his allegations that Colangelo was “dispatched” to Manhattan to prosecute the Trump case, adding that any “accusations of wrongdoing made without – and in fact contrary to – evidence undermine confidence in the justice system and have contributed to increased threats of violence and attacks on career law enforcement officials and prosecutors.”
Uriarte said there is “no basis” for GOP-fueled accusations of collusion between the Justice Department and Manhattan prosecutors, and that the results of a “comprehensive search” of department messages did not find any evidence of correspondence “regarding any investigation or prosecution of the former president.”
“This is unsurprising,” he wrote. “Our extraordinary efforts to respond to your speculation should put it to rest.”
Garland also wrote a rare op-ed published in The Washington Post on Tuesday, warning against “an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight” from Republicans.
The attorney general wrote that such attacks are “baseless, personal and dangerous” and have directly inspired threats of violence against his department’s personnel, and he condemned attacks “in the form of conspiracy theories crafted and spread for the purpose of undermining public trust in the judicial process itself.”
Manhattan voters overwhelmingly elected Bragg as New York County’s district attorney in 2021.
In 2022, he oversaw the conviction of the Trump Organization on charges stemming from a decades-long tax fraud scheme. Trump was not charged in that case. A grand jury indicted the former president in March 2023.
Colangelo delivered opening statements in Trump’s criminal trial and questioned several witnesses, including Trump’s former White House aide Hope Hicks.
