WASHINGTON – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggwho brought the hush money lawsuit against former President Donald Trump will testify before the Republican Party-led House Judiciary Committee in July, along with prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday.
“The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is proud to play a critical role in upholding and enforcing the rule of law for the people of New York,” a spokesperson for Bragg said Tuesday, delaying the officer’s planned testimony of justice confirmed. “It undermines the rule of law by spreading dangerous disinformation, baseless claims and conspiracy theories following the jury’s return of a full felony conviction in People v. Trump.
“Nevertheless, we respect our government institutions and intend to voluntarily appear before the subcommittee following sentencing,” the spokesperson said.
The July 12 public hearing on Capitol Hill comes one day after Trump’s confirmation hearing in New York, after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The judicial panel also announced it will hold a separate hearing Thursday to “investigate Alvin Bragg’s political persecution of President Trump.”
The hearings come as Trump and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wage war on the justice system. They allege that Bragg, local Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, as well as special counsel Jack Smith and other federal prosecutors, are targeting Trump politically ahead of the presidential election.
Jordan, a conservative firebrand and close Trump ally, announced Bragg’s upcoming hearing Tuesday morning, just as President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty of three federal charges related to possessing a firearm while operating of narcotics.
Jordan and other Republicans have suggested that DOJ colluded with Bragg, pointing the finger directly at Colangelo, who joined Bragg’s prosecution team after working at DOJ and the New York Attorney General’s office, where he investigated the Trump Foundation.
But on Tuesday, a Justice Department official wrote a letter to Jordan pushing back on “conspiratorial speculation” about non-existent collusion between the DOJ and Bragg.
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte of DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News that the agency conducted an “extensive” search of email communications between Jan. 20, 2021, and the day of Trump’s conviction and found no emails about Trump’s prosecution, saying this was “not surprising” as the Manhattan district attorney and DOJ are separate entities.
“The Department generally does not make extensive efforts to refute conspiratorial speculation, nor to avoid the risk of losing credibility. However, consistent with the Attorney General’s commitment to transparency, the Department has taken extraordinary steps to confirm what was already clear: there is no basis for these false claims,” the letter said.
Uriarte’s letter, first reported by ABC News, said the DOJ’s “extraordinary” efforts to respond to Jordan’s “speculations” should put the matter to rest.
“The committee’s self-justifying ‘perception’ is completely unfounded, but the committee continues to use it on a large scale. As the Attorney General stated at his confirmation hearing, the conspiracy theory that the recent jury verdict in New York State Court was somehow controlled by the Department is not only false, but irresponsible,” he wrote.
“Allegations of wrongdoing without – and in fact contrary to – evidence undermine confidence in the justice system and have contributed to the increased threat of violence and attacks on law enforcement officers and prosecutors,” the letter said.
On May 31, Jordan formally requested that Bragg and Colangelo — a member of the Trump trial team and a former Justice Department official — testify before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Arming the Government, which is also led by Jordan .
In particular, Jordan said his hearing would examine politically motivated state and local prosecutions, including Bragg’s case against Trump.
On Friday, Bragg’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, responded that he would be willing to testify but needed a new date for the hearing to allow for due process in the Trump case, which will continue through the conviction of July 11.
She also requested the opportunity to speak with Jordan’s staff about the “scope and purpose of the proposed hearing” so that he can “comply with the committee’s invitation while protecting the integrity of a pending criminal prosecution and the sovereign interests of New York can protect.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
