Bill Barr Improperly Targeted Marijuana Mergers Says DOJ Whistleblower

Attorney General Bill Barr isn’t too high on marijuana as a business, so he improperly targeted cannabis company mergers with antitrust investigations, a DOJ whistleblower alleges.

Current DOJ employee John Elias said in a prepared statement, which will be delivered before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, that Barr weaponized the power of the DOJ antitrust division to persecute businesses he doesn’t personally like. The statement from Elias, a “career official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division,” comes not long after we got our first look at former Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky’s revelations on DOJ political interference in the Roger Stone case.

Elias said that he was concerned enough about what he saw that he reported it to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

“I am a career employee at the Department of Justice. Based on what I have seen, and what my colleagues saw and described to me, I was concerned enough to report certain antitrust investigations launched under Attorney General Barr to the Department of Justice Inspector General,” Elias began. “I asked him to investigate whether these matters constituted an abuse of authority, a gross waste of funds, and gross mismanagement. I am appearing here today under subpoena to describe these matters to the Committee. Although I am a current DOJ attorney, my testimony is personal and does not represent the views of the Department.”