Aaron Zelinsky.
Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal Tuesday night called for an investigation into “political interference at the Department of Justice” after four prosecutors — including New Haven born-and-bred Aaron Zelinsky — dramatically withdraw en masse from a case.
That case involved the successful prosecution of Donald Trump ally Roger Stone for obstruction of a Congressional inquiry, lying under oath, and witness tampering to protect the president.
The prosecutors had originally recommended Stone receive a prison term of up to nine years. After Trump called that recommendation (by his government’s prosecutors) “horrible” and “unfair” in a Tweet, the Justice Department submitted a new brief calling the original recommendation excessive. In apparent protest, the four prosectors working the case withdrew from it. (Read about that here.)
One of those four prosecutors is Aaron Zelinsky, a son of former Edgewood Alder Edward Zelinsky who attended Hopkins School, Yale University and Yale Law School. (Read here about that and his ascension to a role in former FBI director Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.)
Sen. Blumenthal called in a release issued Tuesday night for the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate “political interference” in the change of the government’s sentencing request.
“I write to request that the Senate Judiciary Committee immediately open an investigation into the Justice Department’s decision to seek a reduced sentence for Roger Stone, in abrupt reversal of the recommended sentence sought by career prosecutors just yesterday. This highly unusual about-face by the Department is stunning and alarming, and smacks of dangerous political interference in law enforcement decision-making,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“Hours after President Trump publicly criticized the seven to nine-year sentence sought by the career prosecutors who investigated and tried Roger Stone for multiple felonies, including witness tampering and obstruction of Congress, Justice Department leadership intervened to overrule the recommendation. President Trump called the prosecution “ridiculous” and a “miscarriage of justice,” unprecedented disparagement by any president of a federal law enforcement matter. As of this evening, all four career prosecutors have resigned in protest of this highly inappropriate decision. These resignations are an extraordinary act of courage by the public servants who worked on this case, but should concern us greatly as Members of Congress and as Americans. It is a bedrock of democracy that law enforcement decisions be made independent of improper political interference. The integrity of the Justice Department and the rule of law depends on such independence. I ask that the Judiciary Committee conduct an investigation into this matter and begin hearings immediately.”