Trump risks gag order violation with new screed against lawyer who argued the case: 'Unbelievable'
Former President Trump launched an attack on the Manhattan District Attorney's lead prosecutor in the NY v. Trump case, despite not calling him out by name, as a "representative" of the Biden administration looking to "hurt" Trump's 2024 run for the White House.
"Let me just tell you that the White House … they're the one trying this case. You heard who was doing all the talking: a representative from the White House, just recently. This is all about Biden, he can't campaign. So, he's trying to injure his opponent. They're trying to hurt the opponent because they can't win it fair and square. It's lawfare. There are a lot of terms for it. It's a third-world-country way of campaigning. Such a disgrace, so sad to see what's happened to our country," Trump said Tuesday afternoon. "Our country is going to hell under Biden."
"Look at the person. Why don't you look at the person that argued their case for almost the entire case? Look at the person. Where did he come from? Unbelievable. He came from Biden," he added.
Trump did not name the person he was speaking about. However, the lead prosecutor for the case, Mathew Colangelo, is a former Department of Justice (DOJ) official who took a job with the DA's office just months before the indictment of the former president.
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His comments come amid a gag order that has prevented him from publicly speaking about witnesses or making remarks about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff. Trump has already been fined $10,000 for violating the order on 10 occasions via Truth Social posts and his campaign's website.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump teased he may violate the gag order.
"We do want to defend our Constitution," he told reporters Tuesday. "So at some point, maybe, I will take the chance."
In presiding Judge Juan Merchan's initial gag order ruling last month, he threatened Trump with jail time if the former president continued to violate the order, noting the law prevented him from fining Trump more than $1,000 for each violation. Merchan wrote in the order that if Trump carries out "continued willful violations" of the gag order, he could face "incarceratory punishment" if "necessary and appropriate."
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Trump responded to the threats of jail this month as a "sacrifice" he was willing to make to protect the Constitution.
"I have to watch every word I tell you people. You ask me a question, a simple question I'd like to give it, but I can't talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and [says] you'll go to jail if you violate it," Trump said at the time.
"And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It's not even close. I'll do that sacrifice any day."
Though Trump did not mention Colangelo by name when he made his remarks Tuesday, the prosecutor has a lengthy resume in government that dates back to the Obama administration, Fox News Digital previously reported. He most recently served nearly two years in Biden's DOJ, including as acting associate attorney general and overseeing the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions.
Colangelo has also previously prosecuted cases involving Trump.
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Colangelo assisted a case in 2018 that dissolved Trump’s former N.Y.-based charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, after prosecutors alleged that it had illegally coordinated with Trump’s 2016 campaign. The charity was dissolved after a judge found that Trump had "breached his fiduciary duty."
That same year, Colangelo worked as lead prosecutor in a case involving the Trump administration’s push to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census. The Justice Department ultimately decided to print the 2020 census without the citizenship question due to lengthy court battles, including the Supreme Court weighing in that the question could not be added for the time being.
Experts who previously spoke to Fox News Digital described Colangelo's career move from a top DOJ position to a district attorney's office as "very odd."
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Before the gag order was imposed, Trump made clear he was no fan of Colangelo. He slammed the attorney as a "radical left [prosecutor] who was put into the state working for Letitia James and was then put into the district attorney’s office to run the trial against Trump."
Last week, Republican House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan sent a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James, demanding her office turn over documents related to Colangelo and arguing that the prosecutor has an "obsession" with the 45th president.
"Mr. Colangelo's recent employment history demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime," Jordan wrote in his letter to James last Wednesday.
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"At the New York Attorney General's Office, Mr. Colangelo – who, for some time, held the title of Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives – ran investigations into President Trump, leading 'a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies,'" Jordan continued. "On January 20, 2021, the first day of the Biden Administration, Mr. Colangelo began serving as the Acting Associate Attorney General – the number three official at the Justice Department. Upon the confirmation of Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, Mr. Colangelo then served as the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General."
The defense team rested on Tuesday, with Merchan dismissing the jury until Tuesday next week, when closing arguments will begin. Jury deliberations are anticipated to begin next Wednesday.