NEW YORK — The Manhattan district attorney’s office made history last week by bringing the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president.
In the wake of the 34 felony charges unsealed Tuesday — which allege Donald Trump falsified business records to disguise paying porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about an extramarital tryst in the days before the 2016 election — the former president went on the offensive, declaring the case has “NO MERIT.”
It’ll be up to these seven seasoned prosecutors with a combined 125 years of litigation experience — including taking down some of the most infamous fraudsters convicted in New York courtrooms — to prove Trump’s case does indeed have merit.
Susan Hoffinger
Susan Hoffinger heads the DA’s Investigation Division and is the Trump prosecution team’s pilot. Hoffinger is no stranger to Trump’s business dealings — she led the team that secured the 2022 convictions of two Trump Organization entities and the company’s longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg for tax fraud.
During her 20 years as a defense attorney, Hoffinger ran her own law firm, where she represented dozens of clients charged with the same crimes as Trump, as well as tax fraud, money laundering, bribery, securities fraud, antitrust violations, and other white-collar crimes. She notably won an acquittal for a construction supervisor charged in the 2007 fatal Deutsche Bank building blaze.
Catherine McCaw
McCaw serves as counsel to the Investigation at the Manhattan DA’s office, where she’s worked since 2015. Before becoming a prosecutor, McCaw worked in private practice and clerked for judges in federal court in Manhattan and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
McCaw has tried scammers peddling fake COVID-19 vaccine cards, investigators who submitted fake asbestos reports to the city, and a Manhattan real estate lawyer who stole $14 million of his clients’ money during her tenure at the office.
In 2019, she handled the prosecution of notorious fraudster Anna “Delvey” Sorokin, who was convicted of pretending to be a German heiress to scam a bank for a $22 million loan.
Christopher Conroy
Chris Conroy, a senior adviser in the Investigation Division, did most of the talking in court at Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday.
The longtime Manhattan prosecutor has overseen scores of white-collar cases that charged major financial institutions with violating U.S. sanctions and New York laws. In 2014, he was honored by the U.S. Department of Justice for his work on the team that secured the conviction of the world’s fourth-largest bank, BNP Paribas.
Before joining the DA’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau in 2011, Conroy tried scores of murder, robbery, and burglary cases. As a fraud investigator, he tried Ponzi schemes, insider thefts, and boiler room stock frauds.
Conroy was on the team that took down shuttered international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf in 2014 for a $200 million book-cooking operation.
Matthew Colangelo
Matthew Colangelo is District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s senior counsel, a role in which he’s responsible for overseeing policies and strategies in the office’s most sensitive high-profile white-collar probes and housing, tenant protection, and labor cases.
Colangelo came to the DA’s office in 2022 from the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was third in command as acting associate attorney general. At the DOJ, Colangelo oversaw the Antitrust Division, Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Tax Division.
Part of Colangelo’s time working at the state AG’s office coincided with Bragg’s. He was chief counsel on federal initiatives, representing cases challenging charity fraud at the now-defunct Trump Foundation, the citizenship question on the census, and immigration arrests at state court proceedings.
Peter Pope
Pope returned to the DA’s office in 2022, more than 35 years after working there under former DA Robert Morgenthau. Under Bragg’s leadership, Pope is the office’s executive prosecutor for Gun Violence Prevention.
Pope’s resume details a wealth of experience in government. He ran the state AG’s criminal division under Eliot Spitzer, later becoming Gov. Spitzer’s Director of Policy, when he negotiated New York’s first human trafficking bill. He rejoined the AG’s office in 2021 to head the Investor Protection Bureau.
Under Morgenthau, Pope convicted Bonanno capo James Galante for a racketeering scheme in a newspaper delivery scheme, including New York Daily News deliveries.
Rebecca Mangold
Mangold joined the Manhattan DA’s office in 2022 after nine years in private practice, when she represented clients in high-stakes financial fraud cases.
She has years of experience investigating and representing clients in criminal and civil white-collar cases. She led negotiations resulting in the recovery of $850 million from UBS Real Estate Securities Inc. and Bank of America for investors who lost money during the 2008 mortgage crisis.
Mangold’s notable experience also includes investigating a $1 billion mining hacking conspiracy involving a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer.
Katherine Ellis
Ellis joined the Manhattan DA’s office in 2018, where she started in Trial Bureau 80. She joined the Major Economic Crimes Bureau in 2021.
A former legal analyst for Goldman Sachs, Ellis is handling a major fraud case against a partner at the now-shuttered law firm of Gordon and Silber LP accused of embezzling $1.2 million.
