Prominent right-wing media figures and others have reinvigorated their attacks against the lead prosecutor in former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial, Matthew Colangelo, with flimsy conspiracy theories and attempts to downplay the severity of Trump’s alleged crimes and to depict the case against him as tantamount to a political witch hunt.
On April 24, Axios documented Republican attacks against Colangelo since Trump’s criminal trial began, reporting that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and other “top Trump allies on Capitol Hill have claimed that Colangelo, a former attorney with President Biden's Justice Department, left the DOJ specifically to go after Trump.” As the article notes, “Former DOJ official Michael Zeldin told Axios it's not unusual for a federal prosecutor to leave for a gig at the Manhattan DA's office.” (Indeed, a New York Times article about the hiring includes multiple explanations for why Colangelo was a good fit for the role; it also notes that he had already stepped aside as acting associate attorney general when a permanent associate attorney general was appointed.)
Axios also explains, “Such comments continued a pattern of Trump and his backers going on offense against those prosecuting him — and trying to link cases that aren't in federal courts to Biden, though the Justice Department isn't involved in them.”
Steve Bannon discussed the piece on the April 24 edition of his show War Room, saying “We’ve finally Alinsky’d, we’ve got the target, Matthew Colangelo,” seemingly referencing one tenet of activist Saul Alinsky’s work Rules for Radicals — a regular reference point in the right-wing media.
“We have a criminal conspiracy between the Justice Department, Biden's DOJ,” Bannon continued, telling guest Mike Davis that Axios’ staffing explanation is “BS” and adding, “You've got the DOJ guy who was the architect of all this actually having to be up there and give the opening argument to lay out the entire thing.”