The House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas Tuesday for the testimony of two Justice Department officials, including one of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s top prosecutors, in its probe of what panel Democrats call the agency’s “unprecedented politicization” under President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr.
John Elias, acting chief of staff of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, was issued a subpoena Tuesday. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y, also issued a summons to Aaron Zelinsky, who worked on the team prosecuting Trump’s friend Roger Stone. Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration will also testify, though he was not subpoenaed, Nadler said.
Nadler said they want to hear from Zelinksy, now with the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland, about the handling of Stone’s case. Elias is expected to face questions about “improperly motivated activity by the Antitrust Division,” the news release said.
The New York Times, which first reported on the subpoenas, noted he had purview of the department’s now-abandoned inquiry into a pact between the state of California and several automakers – a deal similarly attacked by the president.
“The Attorney General, who cites his busy schedule as a basis for refusing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee but has made time for multiple television interviews — may have abdicated his responsibility to Congress, but the brave men and women of our civil service have not,” the committee’s chairman, Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
Full Content: New York Times, Washington Post
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