House Republicans are pressuring Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James to provide records related to her former employee Matthew Colangelo, who helped secure a criminal conviction against former President Donald Trump last month.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote in a letter to James on Tuesday that he will resort to subpoenaing her for the documents if she does not respond to his requests, which he first made one month ago.
The chairman gave her a new deadline of July 2 to reply to him, noting she did not respond at all to the initial letter he wrote in May.
Republicans first launched an inquiry into Colangelo last year, around the same time Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, with the help of Colangelo, brought criminal charges against Trump.
Bragg first enlisted Colangelo in December 2022 to help with white-collar prosecutions at the same time the district attorney was planning behind the scenes for a grand jury to indict Trump. Colangelo was working in a senior role at the Biden Department of Justice on civil litigation, and he had little experience with white-collar prosecution.
Colangelo did, however, have a wealth of knowledge about Trump from his time in James's office.
Before working at the DOJ, Colangelo worked under James while she was conducting a three-year investigation into Trump, which culminated in James bringing a massive civil lawsuit against the former president and his real estate company.
Colangelo was involved in James's civil case and also led federal initiatives, which involved, at the time, filing lawsuits against the Trump administration, as well as investigating the Trump Foundation.
Amid Trump's trial, Jordan revived his inquiries into Colangelo, saying in his letter to James in May that Colangelo's "employment history demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime."
Jordan said Tuesday that his committee is "continuing to conduct oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials" and that Bragg had "engaged in an unprecedented abuse of authority."
"Notably, Bragg's prosecution has been led in part by Mr. Colangelo, a former prosecutor in your office and subsequent senior Justice Department official in the Biden Administration," Jordan wrote. "As such, the Committee continues to seek information and documents related to Mr. Colangelo's employment at the New York Attorney General's Office."
Jordan has requested from James a sweeping set of records, including any internal communications Colangelo had about Trump while there and any communications Colangelo had with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, the Democratic National Committee, or the Biden campaign about Trump.
He also demanded similar records from another of Colangelo's former employers, the DOJ.
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The DOJ responded to the requests in a forceful letter, saying it had no records of email correspondence between Colangelo and Bragg's office and that the chairman was perpetuating "conspiratorial speculation" about Trump's prosecution.
The Washington Examiner reached out to James's office for comment.
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