Pro-Trump group hits Biden with legal challenge after ex-president's conviction

A legal group aligned with Donald Trump has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg illegally coordinated with President Joe Biden to prosecute the presumptive Republican nominee.

America First Legal filed the formal administrative complaint Wednesday, alleging that the president's principal campaign committee, Biden for President, had violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by coordinating with Bragg to put Trump on trial for falsifying business records to cover up his own alleged violations of election finance law – of which a jury convicted him on all 34 counts last month.

"Because the available information supports a conclusion that Bragg’s prosecution of President Trump was coordinated with President Biden and made to influence the 2024 presidential election, it is a 'coordinated expenditure' under the Act resulting in an in-kind contribution by Bragg to Biden and the Biden Campaign," America First Legal said in a press release.

The Justice Department has previously responded to a letter from House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who has threatened to withhold funding from any agency that attempts to prosecute a former president. The DOJ said that a review of communications between January 2021, when the New York case started, until the verdict showed no contact between federal prosecutors and anyone involved in the Trump case.

“The District Attorney’s office is a separate entity from the Department," said Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte. "The Department does not supervise the work of the District Attorney’s office, does not approve its charging decisions, and does not try its cases. The Department has no control over the District Attorney, just as the District Attorney has no control over the Department, [and] the Committee knows this.”

ALSO READ: ‘That's the Kool-Aid’: Republicans triple down on Trump the morning after guilty verdict

Bragg has agreed to testify July 12 before Jordan's select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government alongside Matthew Colangelo, a former top DOJ official hired by the district attorney in 2022 to help lead the Trump probe, which the AFL flagged as highly suspicious.

"Colangelo left his post as the number three in the DOJ to join the district attorney’s office – a move that reeks of partisanship," AFL said. "Colangelo previously held senior positions in the DOJ and the New York Attorney General’s Office, both of which had competing investigations related to President Trump. Notably, before joining the Biden DOJ, Colangelo contributed several times to Bragg’s District Attorney campaign."

"The available information indicates that Bragg’s hush money prosecution was 'coordinated' with President Biden, i.e., it was made 'in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of' Biden," the group added. "Effectively, Bragg acted 'in cooperation, consultation, or concert, with, or at the request of' Biden to influence the 2024 presidential election."

Colangelo essentially served as a placeholder as associate attorney general until Biden's nominee Vanita Gupta was confirmed in April 2021, and then he served as her principal deputy helping to supervise civil litigation and units such as the Office for Violence Against women.

Anthony Coley, who served as Attorney General Merrick Garland's spokesman, recalled that Gupta and Colangelo left the room when he briefed the attorney general about press reports on the Trump investigation, which he stopped doing altogether once Trump announced his campaign for president and special counsel Jack Smith was appointed.