House Republicans Ask District Attorney Bragg to Testify in Trump Trial

The House Judiciary Committee is requesting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg testify in a hearing about the weaponization of the federal government in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict.

Trump was convicted Thursday in a Manhattan criminal court of 34 felony charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying for the silence of a porn actor who claimed they had an affair. The trial and subsequent conviction marked the first time a former U.S. president has been tried or convicted in a criminal case.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the committee, requested Bragg and Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, testify on June 13 in a hearing before a select subcommittee on the weaponization of government.

Colangelo previously worked for the Justice Department in the Biden administration and worked for New York Attorney General Letitia James, investigating Trump and the Trump Organization.

Brad Smith, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, will also be called to testify, according to the Washington Examiner.

The hearing will examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage in politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials, particularly Trump, Jordan said.

After the verdict was announced, Jordan called it a “travesty of justice.”

“The Manhattan kangaroo court shows what happens when our justice system is weaponized by partisan prosecutors in front of a biased judge with an unfair process,” Jordan said. “Americans see through Democrats’ lawfare tactics and know President Trump will be vindicated on appeal.”