Former President Donald Trump accused the Biden White House of having direct involvement in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud lawsuit being brought against him.
“This is a political witch hunt. This is meant to influence an election. This also comes from the White House,” Trump told reporters Thursday outside the Manhattan courthouse where the trial is taking place.
“This is not just a state matter, because the White House is controlling district attorneys,” he continued.
“The DOJ put one of their top people — right under the attorney general — put him into the district attorney’s office. Also put a man into the state attorney general’s office. … Happened to be the same man,” Trump said.
The 45th president is referring to Matthew Colangelo, who had been the third-highest ranking official in the Biden Justice Department before he joined Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, The New York Times reported in December 2022.
Before that, Colangelo worked for James, helping build the fraud case that she filed against Trump in September 2022.
During a break in his N.Y. civil fraud trial, former President Donald Trump says the White House is controlling district attorneys and launching a political witch-hunt against him. pic.twitter.com/8Dq1tMBjmi
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) December 7, 2023
Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project, affirmed Trump’s claim regarding the Biden administration’s involvement as true.
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“In December 2022, Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg hired a top Biden DOJ political appointee and longtime Democrat activist — Matthew Colangelo — to help run his unprecedented political prosecution of Biden’s political enemy,” Davis posted on social media platform X.
“After Bragg lobbied the prior DA to decline to prosecute Trump. And the Manhattan U.S. Attorney declined. And the FEC declined. And Bragg declined. Before Biden’s Colangelo changed this, bringing the first indictment ever of a former president,” he added.
Fact Check: True.
1. President Biden had his White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su waive President Trump’s claim of Executive Privilege, leading to Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland and Jay Bratt’s unprecedented raid in August 2022 and Garland, Jack Smith, and Bratt’s… https://t.co/lhtXP6nBRw
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) December 7, 2023
Bragg charged Trump in April with falsifying business records in relation to an alleged hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
Trump told reporters Thursday that the expert witness who testified in James’s lawsuit against him, New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, “found no accounting fraud of any kind. This is a highly respected man. I don’t know him, but he’s an expert witness and he found no fraud whatsoever. He found no accounting fraud whatsoever.
“And like everyone else, he said, ‘What are we doing here?’” Trump further stated.
Bartov testified, “My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud” regarding Trump’s financial statements, adding they “were not materially misstated,” according to The Associated Press.
Trump argued the true fraud is being perpetrated by James and Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the case.
After testifying last month, Trump said, “There’s no case here. There are no victims. The banks aren’t a victim. The insurance companies aren’t a victim. Everybody got paid.”
The AG’s lawsuit alleges that the Trump Organization inflated the value of its properties by as much as $3.6 billion to obtain better loan terms.
The state of New York is seeking $250 million in penalties and a ruling that prevents the Trump Organization from doing business in the state.
Trump told reporters Thursday that James’ case is “called election interference. It’s a sad day for our country that a thing like this can take place. I’m sitting in a courthouse instead of being in Iowa, where I should be [campaigning].”
