Bragg and Colangelo to Testify on Trump Case Before House Judiciary

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo will testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the Trump hush money case. This follows Trump's sentencing for covering up a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. The case has been labeled by Trump and his allies as politically motivated.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on July 12, a day after former U.S. President Donald Trump is sentenced in his hush money case, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

A Manhattan jury last month convicted Trump on charges of covering up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says they had, which he denies. It was the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president, past or present. Trump, the Republican candidate for president in the Nov. 5 election, has vowed to appeal following his July 11 sentencing before Justice Juan Merchan in New York state criminal court in Manhattan. He and his political allies have called the case brought by Bragg, a Democrat, a politically-motivated prosecution intended to interfere with his campaign.

Matthew Colangelo, a prosecutor on Bragg's team and former Justice Department official, is also expected to testify, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Trump's allies have pointed to Colangelo's role as evidence that President Joe Biden's administration was involved in the prosecution - a claim that Justice Department officials have dismissed as baseless. A spokesperson for Bragg's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a letter to U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, the committee's chair, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte said the Justice Department had searched its officials' email communications for correspondence with the Manhattan District Attorney's office about the Trump case and found none. "The conspiracy theory that the recent jury verdict in New York state court was somehow controlled by the Department is not only false, it is irresponsible," Uriarte wrote in a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday. In testimony before the committee last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland said suggestions he had dispatched Colangelo to Bragg's office were false.