WASHINGTON — The Manhattan prosecutor who led the “hush money” case against President Trump, in which the 45th and 47th president was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, played a larger role in the federal cases against the commander in chief than previously known.
Matthew Colangelo joined Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team in December 2022 after resigning as principal deputy associate attorney general. Colangelo previously served as acting associate attorney general, the third-ranked post in the Biden Justice Department.
Defenders of Colangelo tried to distance him from Trump-related activities at the DOJ, but calendar records obtained by conservative watchdog America First Legal and shared with The Post show that he sat in on key meetings about the once and future president.
At least three of those meetings related to the dispute over national security records held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort that led to his indictment by special counsel Jack Smith.
Colangelo also joined a December 2021 meeting concerning the DOJ’s position in advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s civil case against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation.
Another 12 items on Colangelo’s calendar dealt with meetings regarding a subpoena of former Trump White House Counsel Don McGahn for testimony on obstruction of justice findings in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on claims Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
“These records show that the man who delivered the opening statement prosecuting President Trump while working in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was more involved in Trump-related litigation preparation at DOJ than the American people were led to believe,” AFL’s Will Scolinos said in a statement.
“It begs the question of what else ‘We the People’ have been misled about.”
The Post previously reported that the Democratic National Committee paid Colangelo $12,000 in January 2018 for “political consulting” and that he donated $400 to former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
The May 2024 conviction of Trump marked the first time a former US president had been found guilty of criminal charges.
However, Judge Juan Merchan gave Trump a no-penalty sentence 10 days before his second inauguration, waiving the possibility of prison time or fines.
When pressed about Colangelo jumping ship to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland testified under oath that he “had nothing to do with it.”
“I assume he applied for a job there and got the job,” Garland told House lawmakers in 2024.
Bragg’s team had stated that Colangelo would “focus on housing and tenant protection and labor and worker protection, as well as the Office’s most sensitive and high-profile white-collar investigations.”
The Post contacted Bragg’s office for comment.
