Published on June 5, 2024, 12:32 am

In a recent development, Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the Department of Justice (DOJ), has refrained from promising legislators access to all communication that occurred between his department and prosecutors’ offices that have engaged in legal action against former President Donald Trump.

Garland traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to provide testimony during an oversight hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee. Representative Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, interrogated Garland about his department’s interactions with regional prosecutors’ offices which have either sued or formally charged Trump in preceding months.

One such case led to an unprecedented judgment last week. A jury located in New York City sided with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, declaring Trump guilty on 34 felony counts – a first time for any current or former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime in American history.

Gaetz mentioned the offices of both Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James alongside Bragg’s during his questioning of Garland. He pressed the attorney general for a commitment to deliver every document and piece of correspondence that had taken place between the DOJ and these state and local prosecutors.

Despite being questioned persistently, Garland maintained that his department does not exercise control over these individual prosecutor’s offices who make their decisions independently. “If you send us a request, we will refer it over to our office responsible for legislative affairs. They’ll respond as suitable,” he added later.

Garland was then told by Gaetz that he needed to agree to share all documents and correspondences involving the DOJ and local prosecutors or cease affirming allegations regarding the targeted legal campaign against Trump as being merely speculative conspiracy theories.

Gaetz explained that if indeed such allegations were theoretical conspiracies only, this factor would be visibly presented through those documents in question. The representative also underlined how referring requests further within the DOJ only serves to propagate alarming conspiracy theories purportedly causing concern.

The representative from Florida also brought up Matthew Colangelo, who had been the third-ranking official within the Biden Justice Department before joining the prosecution team handling Trump’s case in Manhattan. Garland said he was not privy to why Colangelo made this move. “I did not assign Mr. Colangelo anywhere,” he stated in response to allegations made by Gaetz, “My assumption is that he applied and got the job there; I categorically state that it had nothing to do with me.”

Prior to becoming a part of the Biden administration’s DOJ, Colangelo worked briefly for Democratic Party circles during which time he took home $12,000 from the Democratic National Committee for “political consulting” in January 2018. Before serving as senior counsel in Bragg’s office, dealing with Trump’s criminal case, Colangelo held a top role within Garland’s team at DOJ.