Donald Trump accuses prosecutor in NYC ‘hush money’ case of being one of Biden’s ‘thugs’
Former President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at the Manhattan prosecutor leading the “hush money” criminal case against him.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee took aim at Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo, a former top Justice Department official under President Biden who also once worked in New York Attorney Letitia James’s office.
“Colangelo is a radical left [prosecutor] from the DOJ who was put into the state working for Letitia James and was then put into the District Attorney’s office to run the trial against Trump,” Trump, 77, fumed during a press conference after a hearing in the case.
“This is all Biden-run things [sic], meaning Biden and his thugs, because I don’t know if he knows he’s alive. And it’s a shame what’s happening to our country,” Trump charged.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
Bragg, a Democrat, announced he was hiring Colangelo in late 2022 as part of the team investigating the former president.
Colangelo, who worked in the Obama administration as a senior Labor Department official, moved to the DOJ under Biden as acting associate attorney, where he helped supervise the Civil, Civil Rights, Antitrust, and Tax divisions.
During his stint in James’ office, Colangelo helped lead the civil fraud case into Trump that ultimately resulted in the $454 million judgement issued against him by a Manhattan judge last month.
Trump noted during his rant that Bragg had opted not to plow ahead with the investigation into his business dealings launched under former DA Cyrus Vance.
Instead, when Bragg took over, the office pursued the hush money probe and ultimately lodged a 34-count indictment against Trump last year. The case is now set to go to trial on April 15.
Bragg reportedly decided to eschew potential business fraud charges against Trump, instead letting James pursue a civil case against him on that front.
The decision drew outrage from some of his staffers, such as lead attorneys Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunn, who resigned in February 2022. Pomerantz has since gone public with his frustrations.
“You have Mark Pomerantz. He was Hillary Clinton’s lawyer or Democratic National Committee’s lawyer, Trump told reporters. “He walked in and took over the District Attorney’s office – nobody’s ever seen anything like that – to prosecute Trump. And then they wouldn’t do what he wanted to do.”
The alleged hush money payments were the original impetus for the probe opened in 2018 under Vance, Bragg’s predecessor.
Bragg’s office is accusing Trump of falsifying business documents to hide the payments, made to several individuals including former porn star Stormy Daniels, to kill negative stories in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Trump’s team had tried to delay the trial, but a Manhattan judge on Monday cited with prosecutors in setting the April start date.
“We very much believe that starting this trial in April or even starting this trial at any point before the election, is completely unfair to President Trump. It’s completely unfair to the American people,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said during the press conference.
Trump is facing a total of 88 criminal counts spanning four criminal indictments — all of which he has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
The 45th president further mused that Democrats need to take him to court because they can’t defeat him at the ballot box.
“They can’t win an election because of the borders, because of energy prices, because of inflation, because of Afghanistan — the worst and most embarrassing day in the history of our country,” Trump claimed.
“[Biden] can’t win because of Russia, … because of Ukraine being attacked by Russia. And he can’t win because of the October 7th attack of Israel, which he should never have allowed to happen.”
Biden’s campaign wasted little time firing back at Trump.
“Donald Trump is weak and desperate – both as a man and a candidate for President. He spent the weekend golfing, the morning comparing himself to Jesus, and the afternoon lying about having money he definitely doesn’t have,” Biden-Harris 2024 Spokesperson James Singer chided.
“America deserves better than a feeble, confused, and tired Donald Trump.”
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton
