In the past ten days, a federal prosecutor took to the stand to testify in front of the U.S. House of Representatives about top prosecutor Attorney General William Barr's "politically motivated" attack on ten cannabis mergers via review. 

This testimony came from acting chief of staff to the assistant AG John Elias and some of the DOJ's Antitrust Division. 

Elias testified that 10 of the DOJ's Antitrust investigations were not authentic and only driven by Attorney General Barr's dislike for the cannabis industry. 

The sum of the investigations reached an estimated 29% of the antitrust division's "full-review merger investigations" in the 2019 fiscal year, according to Elias.

In a statement written by Elias back in September 2019, he stated,

"The investigations were motivated by the fact that the cannabis industry is unpopular 'on the fifth floor,' a reference to the location of Barr's office at DOJ headquarters.

"Personal dislike of the industry is not a proper basis upon which to ground an antitrust investigation," Elias wrote.

One of the deals caught within the AG's cross-fire was between cannabis retailer MedMen and PharmaCann back in 2019, causing the merger to crumble due to regulatory delays. In the aftermath of the postponement, MedMen saw its stock plummet by a third. 

According to Elias, the DOJ's antitrust committee concluded in its investigation that the MedMen, PharmaCann merger was "unlikely to raise any significant competitive concerns."

Read the testimony of the DOJ cannabis antitrust investigations below:

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