A leading prosecutor in former President Donald Trump’s criminal “hush money” trial in New York City was paid thousands of dollars by the Democratic Party six years ago, according to a report Monday.
Fox News unearthed Federal Election Commission records showing Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo was paid by the Democratic National Committee twice during Trump’s first year in office.
FEC records show Colangelo received two separate payments from DNC Services Corp./Democratic National Committee on the same date — Jan. 31, 2018.
The prosecutor was paid two identical payments of $6,000 for a total of $12,000.
The DNC, which declined to comment on the payments, said in FEC filings the payouts were for “Political Consulting.”
At the time, Colangelo was the deputy attorney general for social justice under then-New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Schneiderman resigned while facing sexual assault allegations in May 2018, and Barbara Underwood became New York’s top law enforcement official.
In that capacity, Underwood sued the Trump Foundation alleging the nonprofit had misused donations.
Colangelo worked under her at the time.
He joined Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office in December 2022, according to a news release from the prosecutor’s office.
Before that, Colangelo was named acting associate attorney general in the federal Department of Justice on the date of President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
He also previously worked as an assistant to then-President Barack Obama, according to a DOJ profile.
Fox News said neither the DNC nor the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office immediately responded to its requests for comment.
In March 2023, Bragg’s office charged Trump with 34 felony counts of “falsifying business records,” alleging he was attempting to conceal hush money payments to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Both women claimed they had affairs with Trump, who has denied it.
The former president’s trial in Manhattan began two weeks ago.
In his opening remarks in the trial, Colangelo tried to paint Trump as a criminal and to soften the image of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who will be a witness against the former president and who is a convicted felon.
“Like other witnesses in this trial, he made mistakes in the past,” the prosecutor told jurors, according to Politico.
While explaining to them why Cohen spent time in prison for campaign finance and other crimes, Colangelo said, “He lied about it to protect his boss.”
In a news release on Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan called Bragg’s unprecedented prosecution of Trump and Colangelo’s role in the trial “political.”
“Since last year, popularly elected prosecutors — who campaigned for office on the promise of prosecuting President Trump — engaged in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current leading candidate for that office,” the Ohio Republican said.
Will Trump emerge victorious from this trial?
“Given the perception that the Biden DOJ is assisting in Bragg’s politicized prosecution, the Committee is seeking to further understand the scope of Colangelo’s employment and his obsession with investigating President Trump.”
In an accompanying letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Jordan wrote, “Mr. Colangelo’s recent employment history demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime.”
“At the New York Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Colangelo ran investigations into President Trump, leading ‘a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies,’” the congressman wrote. “On January 20, 2021, the first day of the Biden Administration, Mr. Colangelo began serving as the Acting Associate Attorney General — the number three official in your department.
“Upon the confirmation of Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, Mr. Colangelo then served as the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General.
“In December 2022, Bragg ‘beefed up [his] office’ by hiring Mr. Colangelo to fill the void left by the departure of politicized line prosecutors Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne. Bragg hired Mr. Colangelo to ‘jump-start’ his office’s investigation of President Trump, reportedly due to Mr. Colangelo’s ‘history of taking on Donald J. Trump and his family business.’
“Mr. Colangelo is now a lead prosecutor in President Trump’s trial.”
He concluded, “That a former senior Biden Justice Department official is now leading the prosecution of President Biden’s chief political rival only adds to the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized.”
