WASHINGTON — A career Justice Department prosecutor who quit the case against President Trump’s friend Roger J. Stone Jr.after political appointees intervened to seek a more lenient sentence has agreed to testify under subpoena next week before the House Judiciary Committee.
House Democrats issued subpoenas on Tuesday to the prosecutor, Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, along with a second Justice Department official, John W. Elias, who has also agreed to testify in public on June 24 about politicization under Attorney General William P. Barr — setting up a potential fight with the department about what they will be permitted to say.
Mr. Elias is a career official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, which opened an inquiry into a fuel efficiency deal between major automakers and the State of California; congressional Democrats have called the scrutiny politically motivated. Continue reading.