House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is escalating his efforts to obtain information about New York Attorney General Letitia James’ handling of the criminal case against former President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Jordan threatened to subpoena James for not complying with his committee’s requests for information regarding Matthew Colangelo, the lead prosecutor in Trump’s Manhattan criminal case.
On May 15, Jordan had written to James seeking correspondence and other information related to Colangelo, who previously worked in her office. “Mr. Colangelo’s recent employment history demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime,” Jordan stated in his letter. He has sent similar requests to Colangelo’s other recent employers.
While working for James, Colangelo was involved in an investigation into the Trump Organization, which later led to a civil fraud case against Trump. In February, a Manhattan judge found Trump guilty and ordered him to pay over $450 million to the state of New York. The case is currently under appeal.
After his tenure with James, Colangelo joined the Biden Department of Justice as the third highest-ranking official. He left the DOJ in December 2022 to lead the prosecution in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “hush money” case against Trump. This case, which had previously been declined by the DOJ and the Federal Election Commission, resulted in a guilty verdict for Trump last month for falsifying business records related to payments made to Stormy Daniels and others.
In his May 15 letter, Jordan emphasized that Colangelo’s actions contribute to the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized. He requested documents and communications between Colangelo and various offices, including the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the DOJ, relating to Trump and the Trump Organization. Jordan also asked for Colangelo’s personnel files from the New York Attorney General’s Office.
Having received no response by the May 29 deadline, Jordan sent a follow-up letter on Tuesday. He argued that Congress has a vital interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former Presidents. Jordan set a new deadline of July 2 for James to comply and threatened to issue a subpoena if she does not.
“The Committee is prepared to resort to compulsory process to obtain compliance with our requests,” Jordan wrote. Bragg and Colangelo are scheduled to testify before the Judiciary Committee on July 12, a day after Trump’s sentencing hearing.
