Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was not involved in a former prosecutor from his Department of Justice moving to the New York team that prosecuted former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) asked directly about Matthew Colangelo, who was part of the team that successfully prosecuted Trump on 34 felony counts related to his hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

“You had no problem dispatching Matthew Colangelo,” Gaetz charged.

Garland responded, “That is false.”

Gaetz then commented on the unlikelihood that Colangelo would move between the two agencies by coincidence.

“He made this remarkable downstream career journey from the DOJ in Washington, D.C., and then pops up in [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg’s office to get Trump,” Gaetz said.

“I assume he applied for a job there,” Garland responded.

Scrutiny of Colangelo intensified following Trump’s conviction in New York City last week.

Colangelo delivered the opening statement at the historic trial, telling jurors Trump “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election, then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again.”

In March, before Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump that prevented him from talking about prosecutors, Trump assailed Colangelo in remarks to the press.

“Remember this: Colangelo was a DOJ guy,” Trump said. “He’s a Biden DOJ guy. Why is he in the Manhattan DA’s office trying the case? That in itself is a conflict.”

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Bragg plucked Colangelo from his post at the DOJ to help with white-collar prosecutions in December 2022. Colangelo had little experience in that field, but he did have a wealth of knowledge about Trump.

But Garland strongly denied involvement in the move, saying “I had nothing to do” with it.