The Justice Department is pushing back on allegations that it colluded with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the prosecution of former President Trump, writing in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that the claims are “conspiratorial speculation” and “completely baseless.”
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte sent the letter, which was obtained by Fox News, to Committee Chairman Jim Jordan late Monday, less than two weeks after a jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
“The Committee has demanded information from the Department because of what you describe as a ‘perception that the Justice Department is’ behind the District Attorney’s so-called ‘politicized prosecution’ and a ‘perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized’ to that end,” Uriarte wrote in response to an April 30 letter than Jordan sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The Department does not generally make extensive efforts to rebut conspiratorial speculation, including to avoid the risk of lending it credibility,” Uriarte added. “However, consistent with the Attorney General’s commitment to transparency, the Department has taken extraordinary steps to confirm what was already clear: there is no basis for these false claims.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks to the media after a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York. (AP/Seth Wenig)
Jordan had written in April that “New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg is engaged in one such politicized prosecution, which is being led in part by Matthew B. Colangelo, a former senior Justice Department official.”
“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,” Jordan said at the time, requesting certain communications from Colangelo and other Justice Department officials.
MANHATTAN DA ALVIN BRAGG AGREES TO TESTIFY IN HOUSE GOP PROBE, BUT NOT ON THEIR TIMETABLE
Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, attends his criminal trial at the New York State Supreme Court in New York, New York, on Wednesday, May, 29. (Doug Mills/Pool via REUTERS)
But Uriarte said the Justice Department conducted a “comprehensive search for email communications since January 20, 2021, through the date of the verdict, between any officials in Department leadership, including all political appointees in those offices, and the District Attorney’s office regarding any investigation or prosecution of the former President” — including through Colangelo’s email account — and “found none.”
“This is unsurprising,” Uriarte told Jordan. “The District Attorney’s office is a separate entity from the Department. The Department does not supervise the work of the District Attorney’s office, does not approve its charging decisions, and does not try its cases. The Department has no control over the District Attorney, just as the District Attorney has no control over the Department. The Committee knows this.”
Uriarte also said that the “self-justifying ‘perception’ asserted by the Committee is completely baseless” and that “accusations of wrongdoing made without — and in fact contrary to — evidence undermine confidence in the justice system and have contributed to increased threats of violence and attacks on career law enforcement officials and prosecutors.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Department of Justice, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
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“Our extraordinary efforts to respond to your speculation should put it to rest,” he said.