by WorldTribune Staff, May 10, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Thursday which demands the Department of Justice hand over “activity and/or communications between Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith or Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis related to the investigation or prosecution” of former President Donald Trump.
“Thanks to evidence that has come to light, my office has reason to believe Biden’s corrupt Department of Justice is the headquarters of the illicit prosecutions against President Trump,” Bailey said. “That’s why we’re demanding the DOJ turn over documents that we believe will expose these political prosecutions for what they are: a witch hunt.”
“The investigations and subsequent prosecutions of former President Donald J. Trump appear to have been conducted in coordination with the United States Department of Justice,” Bailey alleges, adding that he believes that allegation is demonstrated in part by the move of the third-highest ranking DOJ official, Matthew Colangelo, to the Manhattan DA’s office to help prosecute the criminal case, N.Y. v. Trump.
Bragg worked alongside James in pursuing civil litigation against Trump, using that experience as a springboard from which to campaign for his current position, Bailey notes.
“During that campaign, Bragg promised ‘if elected, [he] would go after Trump.’ Once he won election, he pledged ‘to personally focus on the high-profile probe into former President Donald Trump’s business practices,’ ” Bailey states.
Bailey argues that Bragg’s decision to bring the prosecution “despite its transparent weakness has nonetheless had the effect of keeping former President Trump off the campaign trail, which President Biden has bragged about.”
The Missouri AG cites a post on X from the official Biden-Harris campaign on April 24, which says, “While Trump is stuck in court, President Biden is keeping a very robust schedule of campaign events. He’s been to Pennsylvania to talk about the economy, Virginia to talk about clean energy, and Florida to talk about abortion.”
“Given the timing (Bragg charged Trump only after Trump declared his candidacy for President), the transparent weakness of the charges, and the effect the charges have in keeping Trump off the campaign trail, there is substantial reason to suspect the Biden administration has coordinated with Bragg and others to bring prosecutions against Trump,” Bailey claims.
Bailey asked for all communications including documents, calendar appointments, meeting minutes and agendas related to Colangelo’s move to Bragg’s office. He also asked for all similar communications between DOJ and the offices of Bragg, James and Willis.
The DOJ declined to comment.
As video of New York Mayor Eric Adams saying Riker’s Island prison was being prepared, Trump summed up his NYC legal battles: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Trump wrote in a Truth Social post:
It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want. It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time. This Fascist mindset is all coming from D.C. It is a sophisticated hit job on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME!. Judges Engoron and Kaplan, also of New York, are equally Corrupt, only in different ways. What these THUGS are doing is AN ATTACK ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND OUR ONCE GREAT NATION ITSELF. OUR FIRST AMENDMENT MUST STAND, FREE AND STRONG. “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!’
Meanwhile, on Wednesday Bailey announced that the leftist group Media Matters is attempting to halt an investigation from the AG’s office into the organization for “allegedly fraudulent solicitation of donations from Missourians amidst its efforts to target X.”
“Media Matters is attempting to shut down Missouri courts. They filed a motion to HALT our investigation and lawsuit into their fraudulent practices,” Bailey wrote.
“DC courts have no say over Missouri courts. I have filed a motion to protect our ability to litigate in Missouri,” he added.
Baily filed a counter motion to Media Matters’ attempt to stop the investigation, which stated, “How shocking it would be if the Missouri Attorney General asked a state court to issue an order preventing this Court from hearing this case. Yet Media Matters seeks exactly that extreme remedy, just in reverse.”
The case filing from Bailey added: “Media Matters does not dispute that it can raise all its claims and defenses in the ongoing proceeding in Missouri state court. It has already begun doing so. It filed a motion to exercise legal rights guaranteed by Missouri law, which the state court granted. Nevertheless, Media Matters now asks a federal court in the District of Columbia to enter an order that would force the courts of the State of Missouri to stop adjudicating an ongoing case.”