Alvin Bragg to testify to Congress as GOP bashes Trump case
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and one of his lead prosecutors in the New York criminal case against former President Trump will testify to a GOP-controlled House panel in July, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Republicans are engaged in a multi-pronged strategy to undermine Trump's historic felony conviction in his New York hush money case, and that includes investigating the prosecution.
- House Republican leadership is also eyeing a vote on legislation to defend the former president by allowing his case to be moved from state to federal court.
Driving the news: Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo will testify to the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Trump-aligned Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), on July 12, according to a source familiar with the matter.
- Jordan last month had called for Bragg and Colangelo to testify to his panel after Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment he made before the 2016 election to cover up an affair.
- "This hearing will examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials, in particular the recent political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office," Jordan wrote to the two attorneys.
The other side: The Justice Department is pushing back on GOP insinuations of collusion between the DOJ and Bragg's office through Colangelo, a former Biden DOJ official.
- DOJ official Carlos Felipe Uriarte wrote in a letter to Jordan on Tuesday, obtained by Axios, that the department's "comprehensive search" for communications between the DOJ and the DA's office "found none."
- "This is unsurprising ... The Department does not supervise the work of the District Attorney's office," Uriarte wrote, adding, "Our extraordinary efforts to respond to your speculation should put it to rest."
