On June 23, two Department of Justice attorneys released written statements ahead of testimony tomorrow at a House Judiciary Committee hearing concerning political interference and threats to prosecutorial independence at the Department of Justice. Aaron Zelinsky, a prosecutor in the case of Trump ally Roger Stone, wrote: “What I heard—repeatedly—was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the President.” In his statement, Antitrust Division attorney John Elias claimed that politically motivated antitrust investigations had been launched at the direction of Attorney General Bill Barr over the objections of career staff.
Zelinsky states that he saw the department exert “significant pressure” on line prosecutors in the Stone case to obscure the correct sentencing guidelines calculation, and distort Stone’s conduct. In his statement, Elias details investigations launched into an arrangement between California and automakers on fuel emissions that had “enraged” the president, as well as investigations into the cannabis industry.