JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting documents pertaining to the investigation of former President Donald Trump.
Bailey filed the FOIA request last week on May 9, seeking for the DOJ to provide any documents or communications involving in the investigation or prosecutions of 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 in a provided statement. "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."
Bailey requested all documents, calendar appointments, meeting minutes and agendas, including those between the DOJ and the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Leticia James and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
"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 wrote in the May 9 letter. "This is demonstrated only in part by the move of the third-highest ranking member of the Department of Justice, Matthew Colangelo, to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in order to prosecute former President Donald J. Trump in the so-called ‘hush money’ trial in December 2022."
Bailey wrote that Bragg worked alongside James in pursuing civil litigation against Trump, "using that experience as a springboard from which to campaign for his current position."
"During that campaign, Bragg promised ‘if elected, [he] would go after Trump,'" Bailey wrote. "Once he won election, he pledged ‘to personally focus on the high-profile probe into former President Donald Trump’s business practices.'"
Bragg then only charged Trump after he declared his candidacy for president in the 2024 election, which Bailey says was done in an attempt to keep Trump off the campaign trail.
"Across the political spectrum, Bragg’s charges are widely regarded as transparently superficial," Bailey wrote. "Liberal law professor Jed Shugerman, for example, took to the New York Times to describe Bragg’s indictment as 'a disaster' and 'legal embarrassment' that degrades the 'rule of law' and puts in its place 'the rule of the circus.'"
Bailey wrote that Missourians deserve to know what the documents state.
"In order to protect the rights of all Missouri voters who plan to participate in the 2024 presidential election, the State of Missouri has the right to know to what extent the prosecutions of a prominent presidential candidate are being coordinated by the federal government, which is currently run by President Trump’s principal political opponent," Bailey wrote in the letter. "In addition, these records concern matters of widespread and exceptional media interest in which there exists possible questions of the government’s integrity that affect public confidence—namely, the prosecution of a former president and current presidential candidate."
Bailey is asking for an expedited processing of the request. He asked in the letter that any fees be waived, but that in the event the fees are not waived, his office will pay up to $500 in fees for the documents.