(NEW YORK) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has assembled a team of seasoned litigators to prosecute former President Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments made to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
The seven assistant district attorneys have a wide range of experience in the legal world, particularly when it comes to fraud and white-collar crimes.
Here’s a look at the team, based on information provided by the DA’s office.
Susan Hoffinger
Susan Hoffinger serves as the Executive Assistant District Attorney and Chief of the Investigation Division for the Manhattan DA’s office.
She earned her law degree from Columbia Law School and has extensive experience in white-collar cases, both as a prosecutor and defense attorney.
From 1992 to 2000 she served as an assistant DA under former Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau in the Asset Forfeiture Unit, the Trial Bureau, and the Frauds Bureau.
She went on to become the founding partner of the Hoffinger Firm, where she spent over 20 years as a defense attorney focusing on criminal defense, state and federal civil litigation, and regulatory matters.
There she specialized in representing individuals and entities charged with tax fraud, securities fraud, antitrust violations, money laundering, bribery, health care and insurance fraud, falsifying business records, and larceny.
Hoffinger returned to the Manhattan DA’s office last year following the resignations of two ADAs who were handling investigations into Trump. In December it was her trial team that won the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges.
Christopher Conroy
Christopher Conroy has worked in the Manhattan DA’s office for 27 years and currently serves as an Executive Assistant District Attorney and Senior Advisor to the Investigation Division.
A graduate of Fordham Law School, he started in the DA’s Trial Bureau in 1996 and has worked in several other divisions including the Frauds Bureau and the Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit, where he was appointed deputy unity chief in 2006.
In 2011, Conroy moved to the DA’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau and worked his way up the ranks to chief in September 2015.
During his nine-year tenure in that bureau, he oversaw several major cases involving violations of U.S. sanctions and New York state laws on falsification of business records, including investigations into Société Générale S.A., Standard Chartered Bank, and Unicredit Bank AG.
Catherine McCaw
Catherine McCaw serves as the Manhattan DA’s Counsel to the Investigation Division.
She graduated from Harvard Law School in 2009 and clerked for Judge Richard Holwell in the Southern District of New York and Judge Chester Straub of the Second Circuit.
McCaw worked in private practice for a few years before joining the DA’s office in 2015, where she worked her way up the ranks.
She has handled several major cases including fake heiress Anna Sorokin, aka Anna Delvey, and Mitchell Kossoff, a real estate attorney who was convicted of stealing over $14 million from individuals and companies.
Peter Pope
Peter Pope serves as the Executive Assistant District Attorney for Gun Violence Prevention, a position that the Manhattan DA created last year.
A Yale Law School graduate, Pope began his career as a prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office under Robert Morgenthau in 1987, in the trial division.
He moved into long-term wire and grand jury investigations, then into organized crime infiltration of labor unions. Among his cases was the 1992 prosecution of Bonanno crime family capo James Galante on charges of racketeering involving the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers’ Union.
Pope was appointed the inspector general for the New York City School Construction Authority in 1995, where he investigated waste and corruption.
In 2000, Pope was named Deputy Attorney General of New York State under then AG Elliot Spitzer, and ran the office’s Criminal Division. His team worked on several high-profile cases including corruption investigations into then-New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
When Spitzer was elected governor in 2006, Pope became the Director of Policy for New York State and would remain in the position for four years.
After spending some time in private practice, Pope returned to the New York AG’s office as the chief of the Investor Protection Bureau before retiring in 2021. He came out of retirement after Bragg was elected DA to serve in his new, role which investigates and prosecutors gun related offenses including gun traffickers and illegal sales.
Matthew Colangelo
Matthew Colangelo serves as the senior counsel to the Manhattan District Attorney. He earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School and has had a long career in the world of both law and politics.
He spent seven years with the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, three years at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, and served as the deputy director of the Obama-Biden Administration’s National Economic Council. He also served for three years as the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Colangelo was also the chief counsel for federal initiatives at the New York State Attorney General’s office, and worked dozens of cases including an investigation into the Trump Foundation.
In 2020, he returned to the Department of Justice to oversee its Antitrust Division, Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Tax Division.
Colangelo joined the Manhattan DA’s office in 2022.
Rebecca Mangold
Rebecca Mangold is an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan DA’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau. She graduated from Harvard Law School in 2008 and then joined the private law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as an associate.
She clerked for Judge William Martini in the District of New Jersey from 2011 to 2013 before joining the private firm Kobre & Kim. During Mangold’s nine-year tenure at the firm, she rose to partner and worked on cases involving financial fraud investigations.
Her work included leading negotiations against UBS Real Estate Securities Inc. and Bank of America, which resulted in the recovery of $850 million for investors related to the 2008 mortgage crisis.
Mangold joined the Manhattan DA’s office in 2022.
Katherine Ellis
Katherine Ellis serves as an Assistant District Attorney in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the Manhattan DA’s office.
She worked as a legal analyst at Goldman Sachs and a paralegal in the Manhattan DA’s office before attending Columbia Law School. After graduating in 2014, she joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as an associate.
In 2018 Ellis joined the Manhattan DA’s office as an ADA and served in the Trial Bureau before moving to the major economics crime bureau three years later.
Her cases include the prosecution of a senior equity partner of the now-defunct law firm of Gordon and Silber LP for allegedly embezzling $1.2 million from the firm.
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