Attorney General William Barr ordered unneeded probes into the cannabis industry because of his opposition to pot, a Justice Department attorney testified Wednesday in a stormy congressional hearing on allegations of politically-motivated overreach by Barr. John Elias, a career Justice Department antitrust attorney who served as the division’s chief of staff, testified under oath that since March 2019 the Barr Justice Department investigated 10 mergers in the cannabis industry, even though the industry is not concentrated.
