Aaron Zelinsky, a prosecutor on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, told a congressional committee that the sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone was watered down due to political pressure from the “highest levels” of the Justice Department as a result of Stone’s “relationship with the President.” Zelinsky, who now works in the Maryland US Attorney’s Office, said in response to questions from House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler that Barr’s decision in the Stone case was wrong, unethical and against department policy.
“What I heard, repeatedly, was that this leniency was happening because of Stone’s relationship to the President, that the acting US Attorney from the District of Columbia was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice, and his instructions to us were based on political considerations,” Zelinsky said.
And John Elias, a career Justice Department prosecutor in the Antitrust Division, accused Barr of ordering investigations into 10 mergers of cannabis companies because he did not like the industry, and charged that political leadership in the Antitrust Division pushed an investigation into California’s emissions standards last year following a tweet from the President attacking the state’s agreement with automakers.
Elias said he had undertaken whistleblower activity. “I reported these matters of the (inspector general) because they were evidence our nation’s antitrust laws were being misused,” he said.
The allegations from Zelinsky and Elias represented a stark public admonishment of Barr, who critics say has taken multiple actions to protect Trump and try to re-write the history of the Mueller investigation, from distorting Mueller’s findings to dropping charges secured by Mueller’s team against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Zelinsky is likely to face questions about many facets of the Mueller investigation, particularly from Republicans who have accused the FBI of opening the Russia investigation in 2016 to target Trump.
Nadler, a New York Democrat, said earlier this week he was planning to issue a subpoena for Barr’s testimony next month. But Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Wednesday Barr had accepted an investigation to testify on July 28.
Nadler said the effort to remove Berman was part of a “clear and dangerous pattern of conduct” that included the episodes Elias and Zelinsky were testifying about Wednesday.
“Mr. Barr’s work at the Department of Justice has nothing to do with correcting injustice. He is the President’s fixer,” Nadler said. “He has shown us that there is one set of rules for the President’s friends, and another set of rules for the rest of us.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, charged that it was the Obama administration that politicized the Justice Department by investigating members of Trump’s team, pointing to Wednesday’s appeals court ruling that the charges against Flynn should be dropped immediately.
“They’re not political, they’re just right,” Jordan said. “Bill Barr just simply wants to get to the bottom of all this, and somehow that’s all political, when in fact the politics was in the previous administration.”
Republicans engaged in several disruptions as the hearing got underway, raising procedural objections about Zelinsky testifying remotely. When one witness went over the five-minute time limit during opening statements, Rep. Louie Gohmert repeatedly tapped on his desk to protest, prompting some Democrats to call for his removal.
Republicans pressed Zelinsky on the political makeup of the Mueller team, while questioning Elias about discussions to be detailed to the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic staff last year.
Kupec said in a statement Tuesday that Zelinsky did not discuss the matter with Barr, and that Zelinsky’s allegations were based on hearsay, not first-hand knowledge.
“The Attorney General determined the high sentence proposed by the line prosecutors in the Roger Stone case was excessive and inconsistent with similar cases,” Kupec said. “As he has previously stated, the Attorney General did not discuss the sentencing of Roger Stone with the President or anyone else at the White House and had made the decision to correct the filing before the President tweeted about the case.”
Zelinsky and Elias were subpoenaed to appear Wednesday, which is the same way current Trump administration officials testified during the House’s impeachment inquiry. Zelinsky is testifying virtually, while the other witnesses appeared in person.
This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.
CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.