Republican Congressman demands preservation of all Adani prosecution records

Republican lawmaker demands U.S. Department of Justice preserve records related to Adani case, questions selective prosecution.

A Republican lawmaker has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve all records in connection with the “selective prosecution” of billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani and his group of companies by the Biden administration.

The demand comes less than a week before the President-elect Donald Trump administration takes office.

Rep Lance Gooden, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, in a letter on Tuesday (January 14, 2025) to Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanded that the department preserve and produce all records and documents leading up to its decision to go after the Adani Group.

In another letter to Mr. Garland on January 7, Mr. Gooden had raised serious concerns over the department's recent indictment of the group.

“The indictment alleged acts conducted entirely within India, involving Indian citizens and officials, with no apparent injury to U.S. interests,” he had noted.

“The allegations in the Adani case, even if proven true, would still fail to make us the appropriate and final arbiter on the issue. These ‘bribes’ were allegedly paid to Indian State government officials, in India, by Indian executives of an Indian company, with no concrete involvement of or injury to any American party,” Mr. Gooden had said.

“Conversely, Smartmatic, an American company responsible for conducting our elections, had executives who allegedly laundered money and paid bribes to foreign governments, according to the Department of Justice’s indictment earlier. However, despite numerous attempts by my colleagues and I to have our concerns addressed before the elections, we were never briefed by your department,” he had argued.