The Justice Department informed House Republicans on Tuesday that after a thorough investigation, there had been no communication between the department and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and renewed its accusation of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) of spreading a “conspiracy theory.”
The letter to Jordan said that starting on Day One of the Biden administration, the Justice Department conducted an “exhaustive search” of all emails between Biden and officials in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Democrat), who prosecuted former President Trump.
“We found nothing,” Carlos Uriarte, the Justice Department’s director of legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to Jordan obtained by The Hill.
“This is not surprising. DAs are separate entities from the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice does not oversee the work of DAs, does not approve charging decisions, or try cases. The Department of Justice has no control over DAs, and DAs have no control over the Department of Justice. The Committee knows this,” he added.
The three-page letter obtained by The Hill is a scathing rebuke of House Republicans, calling them “irresponsible” for suggesting the Justice Department was in any way involved in the state-level prosecution of President Trump.
“Allegations of misconduct without evidence, and in fact contrary to evidence, undermine confidence in our justice system and contribute to growing threats of violence and attacks against career law enforcement officers and prosecutors,” Uriarte wrote.
“Our extraordinary efforts to respond to your speculation should put the speculation to rest.”
A New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts brought by Bragg, who accused him of falsifying business documents to conceal hush money paid to porn actresses before the 2016 election.
The decision has sparked concern from many Republicans, with some calling for revenge and retaliation in the wake of the verdict.
Days after Trump’s conviction, Jordan again asked Bragg to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, and prosecutors agreed but did not meet a deadline imposed by the committee chairman.
House Republicans also reopened their investigation into former Justice Department officials who left the department to join Bragg’s team, and in an April letter requested any information the Justice Department has in its possession regarding Matthew Colangelo, who gave an opening statement in Trump’s case, as well as any communications between the two agencies.
The department also criticized Chairman Jordan for launching the investigation based on the “knowledge” that the Justice Department may be involved in prosecuting President Trump.
“The State Department generally does not undertake extensive efforts to refute conspiracy theories because it risks lending credibility to them,” Uriarte wrote.
“But consistent with the Attorney General’s commitment to transparency, the Department of Justice took extraordinary steps to verify what is already clear: these false allegations are without merit.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland has taken a tougher stance against the Republican allegations in recent weeks, similarly calling them a conspiracy theory during testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week and accusing Republicans of using “dangerous” rhetoric that amounts to attacks on the Justice Department.
But Republicans including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) argued that releasing the documents Garland requested could undermine the course of the inquiry.
“You come in here and attack it as a conspiracy theory that there’s a coordinated legal battle against Trump, and then we say, ‘OK, give us the documents and the correspondence,’ and then it becomes clear whether it’s a conspiracy theory or not,” Gaetz said at last week’s hearing.
“But when you say, ‘Okay, we’ll accept your request and then run it through the Department of Justice coordination process,’ you’re actually promoting the very dangerous conspiracy theories that you’re concerned about.”
Uriarte’s letter noted that the only coordination between federal prosecutors and those handling the New York case came after both Trump’s lawyers and Bragg’s team requested documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
“Information sharing between U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and local prosecutors is standard and occurs every day across the country,” he wrote.
