again we want to thank everyone for joining us we apologize for the delay that Democrats have an important uh caucus they're at or conference they're at um and um we had some technical difficulties here uh we'll now shair not recogniz himself for an opening statement Alvin Bragg's prosecution of President Trump is lawfare at its worst the New York County District Attorney's Office began investigating president Trump in 2018 southern district of New York months later concluded its investigation into the payments by Michael Cohen and determined no charges should be brought against President Trump while this was going on Alvin Bragg was running for the job while on the campaign trial Mr Bragg boasted about the number of times he had already sued president Trump January 2021 Mr brag stated I'm the candidate in the race who has the experience with Donald Trump close quote he said that it'd be hard to argue with the fact that any case against President Trump would be the most important most high-profile case Mr brag won and took office in January 2022 if you weeks after taking office he told one of his prosecutors mark pomerance quote he could not see a world in which he would indict president Trump and called Michael Cohen as a prosecution witness that's right after campaigning on going after the former president brag gets into office and realizes the case against President Trump is ridiculous that is why the southern district of New York didn't bring it it's why his predecessor sance didn't bring it why did brag change his mind Mark pomerance Special Assistant district attorney resigned in protest and he and his fellow assistant district attorney Carrie Dunn leaked their resignation letter to the New York Times after that the left began the pressure campaign on Alvin Bragg and suddenly the zombie case was resurrected one of the first things Alvin Bragg did was hire Matthew Colangelo a top official in the Biden justice department who had a history of taking on President Trump and his family's businesses it's also interesting to note who Mr Colangelo listed as his references when he applied for the job at the justice department he listed Tom Perez former DNC chair and Jeff Zs who is now President Biden's Chief of Staff that's right the head of the DNC and the Biden white house chief of staff those were his references that's the guy who went to work to be the lead prosecutor on the case against President Trump Alvin Bragg Matthew Colangelo picked their target searched for a crime and then they prosecuted president Trump the partisan da that campaigned on going after president Trump whose newly hired lead prosecutor for the case also had a history of taking on President Trump also had their case in front of a partisan judge a judge who donated to President Biden who imposed a gag order on President Trump who told the jury they didn't need to reach a unanimous decision and prevented one of our Witnesses today Mr Smith an expert on campaign Finance from giving real testimony to the court today Mr Smith will be given an opportunity to tell Congress and tell the country what he wasn't permitted to tell the court what he wasn't permitted to tell the jury remember brag and Colangelo bootstrapped charges that are normally misdemeanor to some underlying crime to make the charges a felony but what was the underlying crime prosecutors didn't reveal that until after the trial began Mr Colangelo in his opening statement accused president Trump of violating the federal elections Campaign Act but the problem is in the plain reading of that act doesn't support the indictment or the verdict as commissioner Smith stated allowing this prosecution to go forward and the ultimate jury decision threaten the enforcement procedures established by Congress under the act and stretched the meaning of the statute in such a way as to threaten due process of law although judge Muran wouldn't permit the leading expert on campaign Finance to provide this testimony he did let someone else speak in the court on this issue and others Michael Cohen Michael Cohen a convicted perjurer someone even his former lawyer said you couldn't trust Michael Cohen who lied to Congress lied to the FBI and lied to the court it's not often you have a witness that can lie to all three branches of government and then become the star witness in the prosecution of a former president but that's exactly what took place in New York it is clear Manhattan District Judge Juan maron's decisions Guided by political bias unfairly prejudiced is the outcome of the trial and violated president Trump's due process rights br's prosecution of President Trump with the help of Judge M open the door for politically motivated prosecutions and it will not be easy to undo the damage that's already been done as we have seen other ambitious prosecutors have followed Bragg's lead and pursued politically motivated indictments against the former president rather than debate political opponents on substance the Democrats strategy to win the 2024 election is through the use of partisan lawfare tactics these politically motivated local prosecutions rais substantial Federal interest and potential collusion between federal and state authorities and that is precisely why we are here today Alvin Bragg's prosecution of President Trump was personal it was based on politics and it was wrong now recognize the ranking member for an opening statement and then we'll get to our Witnesses