Former Acting Associate Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice will Support Office’s Housing & Tenant Protection, Labor & Worker Protection, and White-Collar Investigations
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., today announced the appointment of Matthew Colangelo as new Senior Counsel to the District Attorney. Colangelo, who most recently served as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Justice, will focus on the Office’s cases, policies, and strategies in housing and tenant protection and labor and worker protection, as well as the Office’s most sensitive and high-profile white-collar investigations.
“Public safety requires economic stability, and all New Yorkers deserve to live and work without risk of harassment, wage theft, or dangerous workplaces,” said District Attorney Bragg. “Matthew Colangelo brings a wealth of economic justice experience combined with complex white-collar investigations, and he has the sound judgment and integrity needed to pursue justice against powerful people and institutions when they abuse their power. Those who would harass tenants, steal wages, endanger workers, or defraud the public should know that the Manhattan D.A.’s Office has never had a stronger, more dedicated team in place to enforce our laws and hold them accountable.”
“I am honored to reunite with District Attorney Bragg, my former colleague and a deeply experienced prosecutor committed to public safety in his hometown,” said Matthew Colangelo. “Expanded enforcement of worker-protection and tenant-protection laws will make our communities safer for all New Yorkers and level the playing field for responsible employers and landlords. And assisting with the District Attorney’s focus on financial crimes will promote confidence in the legal system by making clear that the same rules apply to everyone — no matter how powerful.”
This is the first time the Manhattan D.A.’s Office will have an executive position focusing on these priority areas. The Office recently announced the creation of its first-ever Housing & Tenant Protection Unit, which investigates and prosecutes landlords and developers for systemic harassment of tenants and abuse of government programs. Colangelo will provide support to the Unit and deepen the Office’s relationships with stakeholders, drawing on his three years spent as the Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Labor, his work as Deputy Director of the Obama-Biden Administration’s National Economic Council, three years at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, and seven years litigating fair housing and fair employment cases at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.
Colangelo brings a breadth of relevant experience, most recently his two years at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served in a senior leadership position and helped to oversee the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions, including review of significant hate crime matters. In his time at the New York State Office of the Attorney General, he was Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives, leading more than eighty lawsuits challenging federal agency action on constitutional and statutory grounds. This work included representing three dozen states and local governments in a successful challenge to the inclusion of a citizenship question on the decennial census, challenging the federal policy of conducting immigration arrests at state courthouses, supervising civil and criminal labor prosecutions, and investigating the Trump Foundation.