The problem(s) with Jim Jordan’s pursuit of a N.Y. prosecutor

It was a couple of weeks ago when House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan sat down with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, and the conservative host expressed her frustration with the House Republicans’ seemingly endless parade of inconsequential investigations.

As the two discussed Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York, Bartiromo told the Ohio Republican, “Well, look, I mean, at this point, American citizens are asking, ‘What can you do about it?’ I mean, look, with all due respect, people are sick and tired of congressional investigations that go nowhere.”

In context, the Fox host wasn’t suggesting that GOP lawmakers end pointless partisan probes; Bartiromo was instead suggesting that Jordan and his partisan allies start launching more productive partisan probes.

Soon after, the Judiciary Committee chairman demanded information from the Justice Department about Matthew Colangelo, a former Justice Department official who’s now involved in prosecuting Donald Trump’s hush-money case. Two weeks later, as NBC News reported, Jordan has taken another related step.

The report added that Jordan is also seeking communications among Colangelo and the New York and Fulton County, Georgia, district attorneys’ offices, the Justice Department, the Democratic National Committee, and President Joe Biden's re-election campaign. 

Chances are, most of the public has never heard of Colangelo, though your weird uncle who consumes conservative media all day is very likely aware of him.

As regular readers know, Colangelo served as a former senior Justice Department official with a long history of taking on Donald Trump, including having led the investigation that led to the shutdown of Trump’s fraudulent charitable foundation. When he joined district attorney Alvin Bragg’s team in 2022, it was evidence of an intensifying investigation into the former president’s alleged crimes.

Conservative conspiracy theorists, however, came to believe Colangelo’s work in the Manhattan district attorney’s office was actually evidence of the Biden administration secretly pulling the strings in the hush money case, as part of an elaborate election plot against Trump.

It’s this conspiracy theory that Jordan is now taking seriously — or at least pretending to take seriously — as evidenced by the Ohioan’s latest outreach to the New York attorney general’s office.

By all appearances, Jordan’s newest efforts to investigate an investigation — one of the Judiciary Committee chairman’s most unfortunate habits — will probably not amount to much, in part because the conspiracy theory appears to be baseless, and in part because state and local officials will almost certainly ignore Jordan’s requests. He has no jurisdiction over their work, which helps explain why the far-right congressman’s latest efforts to intervene in an ongoing criminal case will fail.

But what’s especially notable about the developments is the degree to which the Republican congressman was effectively bullied into pursuing the conspiracy theory in the first place.

Media Matters recently explained in a report, “Pro-Trump media figures alleged that Colangelo is a ‘partisan hatchet man’ and claimed that his past service in the Justice Department ... proves that Trump’s indictment was a ‘political hit by Biden to take out Trump.’ In reality, Colangelo had unique experience for Bragg because he led the New York attorney general’s civil inquiry into Trump before joining the Justice Department, and it is not unusual for lawyers to leave DOJ for senior roles in the Manhattan DA’s office.”

Nevertheless, Steve Bannon took an especially keen interest in the matter, boasting that he intended to “force” Jordan to take the right’s Colangelo theories seriously.

“We’re already working behind the scenes and we’re going to force Jordan to do that because all Jordan’s given, and you can talk to the Trump team, all he’s done is happy talk,” Bannon told his listeners earlier this month, adding that Jordan has produced a series of “air balls” (a basketball term referring to shots that don’t hit anything).

“You must take action,” Bannon added. “I shouldn’t have to take valuable airtime here, that we have so many other things to get to hound you. To hound you. To hound you. Because if you don’t have a bayonet to the back of these guys, they’re going to backslide on everything, you know why? Because they’re gutless.”

“It’s called controlled opposition,” Bannon concluded. “[Jordan will] go on Hannity and talk about some stuff, right? But nothing happens and this has got to happen.”

Days later, Jordan demanded that the U.S. attorney general’s office provide his panel with evidence related to the Colangelo conspiracy theory — Bannon was pleased by the “start” — followed by the congressman making similar demands of the New York attorney general’s office.

When Jordan took over as chair of the Judiciary Committee, it stood to reason that far-right voices would help call the shots. I didn’t realize, however, just how easily he’d be bullied into submission.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.