Hello, welcome to another MLEX podcast. My name is James Panicki from Mlex's Asia-Pacific

editorial team. It's great to be with you again to talk about all of the big regulatory

issues of the moment.

And in the US, our beat has been dominated in recent weeks by whistleblower allegations,

suggesting that antitrust work being carried out by the Federal Department of Justice,

the DOJ, may have been on the receiving end of political interference.

Now, foreign observers know that some degree of politicisation of US institutions

through presidential appointments can be expected, but these revelations go much further than that.

Joshua Sisko is Emlex's chief antitrust correspondent based in San Francisco. He's been covering congressional

hearings along with our M&A reporter Jenna Ebersole, who's based in Washington, D.C. Jenna's away at the

moment, but Joshua is very much with us. Now, Josh, let's set the scene first. Who are the DOJ

whistleblowers? And what did they have to say last week?

So there was a pair of men testifying before the House Judiciary Committee last week.

The main event, well, depends on your point of view, but one of the two people was a man named

Aaron Zelensky, who was on the former special counsel Robert Mueller's team of prosecutors

investigating Russian influence in the last presidential election.

But the other person testifying was a man named John Elias, who is a longtime antitrust

division prosecutor. He's worked on a number of teams, including

with front office division leadership. He's been there for many years. I think he started in the

George W. Bush administration and has worked through Obama and into the current administration.

So he's a career official.

He was formerly the chief of staff

...