On Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before the House Judiciary Committee where Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz grilled him on claims that a possible collusion between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Trump’s trial in New York was a “conspiracy theory” yet would not turn over communications as directed by Congress.
Garland’s opening statement to the committee said the claims made against the DOJ were “baseless” and these “false claims” against the DOJ’s involvement in the New York City Trump trial case were not true. Gaetz was dissatisfied with Garland’s statement and wanted the communications between the DOJ and Alvin Bragg’s office in Manhattan, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The fact that Garland was unwilling to turn over communications makes the appearance of collusion that much worse.
“You’ve told us that it’s a dangerous conspiracy theory to allege that the Department of Justice is communicating with these state and local prosecutions against Trump,” Gaetz said. “You can clear it all up for us right now, will the Department of Justice provide to the committee all documents all the correspondence, between the department and Alvin Bragg’s office, and Fani Willi’s office, and Letitia James’ office?”
“We do not control those offices,” Garland responded.
However the third highest ranking official in the Department of Justice, Matthew Colangelo, resigned his position to then join the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in December 2022 while also working on the Trump Foundation investigation and Trump’s civil fraud trial.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that Colangelo received thousands in “political consulting” from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) only a few years before.
Gaetz then followed up with asking if the DOJ communicated with any of those offices.
“You come in here, and you lodge this attack that it’s a conspiracy theory that there is coordinated lawfare against Trump, and then, when we say, ‘fine, just give us the documents, give us the correspondence, and then, if it’s a conspiracy theory that will be evident,’” Gaetz said. “But when you say, well, we’ll take your request and then we’ll sort of work it through the DOJ’s accommodation process then you’re, actually advancing the very dangerous conspiracy theory that you’re concerned about.”
The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan officially requested documents that had anything to do with the DOJ’s cooperation/coordination with Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s office and Colangelo’s employment back in early April.
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Gaetz also wanted to know if when Garland was a judge, did he make political donations? Because Judge Juan Merchan donated to President Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020.
Judge Merchan’s daughter is also highly involved in Democratic politics working as a political consultant to many Democrat clients, but Merchan refused to recuse himself because he saw no conflict of interest.
“Shouldn’t someone be owed, like a jury of their peers and a judge that’s non-biased, rather than getting a judge from your political opponent’s donor file?” Gaetz questioned.
“I’m well aware that you’re not asking a hypothetical, you’re asking me to comment on a jury verdict in another jurisdiction that has to be respected,” Garland responded. “I won’t comment on it.”