Photo credit: Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals
Attorney General William Barr
A House Resolution is calling for the impeachment of Attorney General William Barr for a host of reasons, among them his recent actions against the cannabis industry. This includes 10 investigations of mergers between marijuana companies launched by Barr allegedly because of his personal animosity towards the industry. The affair came out after two Department of Justice whistleblowers came forward to denounce Barr’s actions as improper.
“We have been experiencing a very unusual pattern of behavior from the Attorney General of the United States,” said Rep. Steve Cohen. “He has abused his power, he has obstructed justice, and he has violated the First Amendment. He has destroyed almost every norm that existed for attorneys general and their relationship with the rule of law. [...] For those reasons and others, I have introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of William Barr.”
Damning Testimony
The actions of William Barr, including his efforts to undermine the cannabis industry, have been reviewed during a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, June 24:
[start at 49:30]
Attorney John Elias, who has been with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for 14 years, testified in front of lawmakers about sounding the alarm regarding Barr’s actions.
“The first matter that I referred to the DOJ concern 10 investigations that the Antitrust Division launched into merger activity in the marijuana, or cannabis, industry. These mergers were not even close to beating established criteria for these kinds of investigations. And yet, these cannabis investigations accounted for a full 29% of the Division's full review investigations last fiscal year,” Elias testified. “For context, these kinds of investigations are rare: On average, only 1-2% of the thousands of transactions that come before the Division each year get a full review.
“The head of the Antitrust Division, Assistant Attorney General Delrahim, responded to internal concerns about these investigations at an all-staff meeting,” Elias explained. “There, he acknowledged that the investigations were motivated by the fact that the cannabis industry is unpopular ‘on the fifth floor,’ a reference to Attorney General Barr’s offices in the DOJ headquarters building.”
He continued: “In the first of the cannabis investigations, the merger of MedMen and PharmaCann, attorneys examined the proposed deal and determined that the transaction called for no further antitrust review. Staff reached this conclusion using the criteria under the horizontal merger guidelines that have guided the Division for decades. However, on March 5, 2019, Attorney General Barr called the Antitrust Division leadership to his office and ordered the Division to proceed with a full investigation. The Division staff complied, issuing burdensome 15-page subpoenas that compelled production of 1.3 million documents, all at great expense to the companies. Division staff continued to document at the outset the lack of any bona fide antitrust issues. In some cases, the companies operated in completely different geographies and did not compete at all. Nonetheless, the Division continued to issue subpoenas and compel productions of millions of documents from these businesses.”
“Did that cost the cannabis folks a lot of money?” Rep. Cohen asked. “Absolutely,” Elias replied. Beyond the cost of providing millions of documents, the consequences of Barr’s actions were felt throughout the industry; the $682 million MedMen and PharmaCann merger mentioned earlier was canceled as a result of government interference, despite the investigation being inconclusive.
“So it was harassment by Bill Barr of an industry he didn’t like, is that right?” Cohen continued to question. “I think that’s a fair way to characterize it, yes,” Elias replied.
“Barr doesn’t like marijuana. Marijuana is seven times more likely to be enforced against young African Americans, breeding discontentment with police, and Barr doesn’t care about that type of stuff because he doesn’t like marijuana,” Cohen stated. “That’s one of the breeding grounds of distrust of African Americans and police. Very unfortunate.”
As the hearing went on, the improper actions within the cannabis industry merged into a larger conversation about William Barr’s numerous counts of misconduct. Rep. Pramila Jayapal continued to interrogate the witness:
“When the DOJ received these [millions of] documents, was there any evidence that the entirety of these documents were reviewed?” Elias replied: “I think a very small number of the documents were reviewed,” adding that many documents weren’t even uploaded in time by the DOJ.
“So, they requested enormous resources, taxpayer dollars were used, these documents were never really looked at, they weren’t relevant to the investigations… And to be clear, at Attorney General Barr’s direction, the department expends countless taxpayer resources to force companies to ultimately produce millions of pages of evidence and then doesn’t even look at or upload some of that evidence before admitting there’s a violation. Have you ever seen anything this extreme?” Jayapal continued. “In my experience, which includes 14 years at the Justice Department at many different levels of the Antitrust Division, no, I have never seen anything like that,” Elias replied.
“As chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, I am extremely troubled by the testimony that you have provided that confirms that the Trump Administration has weaponized the Department’s Antitrust Division to reward friends and punish enemies,” concluded Rep. David Cicilline.
What Comes Next?
Following the alert from whistleblowers, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility looked into the affair and released a memo clearing William Barr of wrongdoing.
The memo claims that “the cannabis industry provided a unique challenge to federal and state regulators alike, and it was reasonable for the Antitrust Division to seek additional information from the industry through its Second Request process.” Even if the whistleblowers’ allegations are true, the memo says, “the Office of Professional Responsibility concludes that the Antitrust Division acted consistent with all applicable laws, regulations and DOJ guidelines in its review of the proposed cannabis mergers.”
However, regardless of what the Office of Professional Responsibility concluded, John Elias confirmed that the Justice Department’s inspector general is independently reviewing the case, which could lead to further action. Additionally, the resolution asking for Barr’s impeachment has garnered sponsorship from 35 congresspeople from across the nation. As such, and although it doesn’t seem likely that Attorney General Barr will face direct consequences for his interference with the cannabis industry, there remains avenues to hold him accountable for his numerous infractions as Donald Trump’s wingman.
To read more of our cannabis coverage, click here.
To read more stories by Jean-Gabriel Fernandez, click here.
