Jim Jordan demands Bragg testimony following Trump hush money guilty verdict
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Friday he would demand testimony from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) and another top prosecutors who worked on former President Trump’s hush money case.
A post on the social platform X from the Judiciary’s weaponization subcommittee said Jordan would request an appearance from both Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo for a June 13 hearing on “the unprecedented political prosecution of President Trump.”
The swiftly scheduled hearing comes after a jury found Trump guilty on each of the 34 counts brought by Bragg on charges connected to falsifying records in order to conceal hush money payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Bragg’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has resisted previous attempts from Jordan to seek his cooperation, including before charges were ever filed in the case.
Bragg’s team suggested at the time it was Jordan who was inappropriately interfering in the justice system.
“We will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process, nor will we let baseless accusations deter us from fairly applying the law,” a spokesperson for Bragg’s office said when Jordan first requested his testimony in March of last year.
While the trial is now over, Bragg is likely to resist appearing, as other matters regarding the case are ongoing. Trump’s sentencing for the case is July 11, and his team has also suggested he will appeal the verdict — details that could make the prosecutor reticent to discuss his work.
Colangelo, who delivered the opening statement in Trump’s New York trial, has also been a long-term target of Jordan’s.
Jordan first sought documents about Colangelo’s hiring in April of last year, launching a separate effort to get similar documents from the Justice Department last month.
Colangelo was a senior Justice Department official in the Biden administration before joining the Manhattan district attorney’s office in December 2022.
His resume includes significant experience — before and after his Justice Department stint — working on cases that involve Trump.
While working at the New York attorney general’s office, Colangelo was part of a team that sued Trump’s charitable organization in 2018, proving it was improperly using funds, which led to its dismantling.
And during the tail end of the Trump administration, he was involved in the office’s probe into the Trump Organization itself. That probe would later serve as the basis for New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) fraud suit, which this year resulted in a $450 million penalty against Trump.
Colangelo left James’s office for a high-ranking posting at the Justice Department, but he returned to New York two years later to join Bragg’s team.