*Andrew Weissmann, left, was a deputy to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and criticized his old boss for going soft on Donald Trump*

For years, Andrew Weissmann was one of the most visible and vociferous critics of Donald Trump, as a former deputy to Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and MSNBC legal analyst who wrote a book wondering if the president “paid bribes to foreign officials,” or had “Russian business deals in the works” when he ran for president.

Now Weissmann is facing hard questions of his own, about eerily similar themes.

In a pair of letters obtained by Racket, District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ed Martin demanded to know why Weissmann ignored an alleged “conflict of interest” in signing off on a $4.5 billion settlement involving the Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht in 2016, the largest such case in history. Weissmann had been (and is now) a partner at Jenner & Block, which represented a reputed key player in the story, a Canadian private equity firm called Brookfield Asset Management that until January was chaired by that country’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney.

From Martin’s letter to Weissmann:

Under your leadership, the Fraud Section participated in investigations concerning Brookfield — your office called one case, the federal investigation of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, “the largest bribery case in history.” Somehow, Brookfield and its proven corrupt subsidiary, Rutas de Lima, were excluded from sanctions. After you ordered investigations into Brookfield closed, you then returned to Jenner & Block in 2020 as co-chairman of its investigations, compliance, and defense practice.

The letters sent Tuesday, March 11th to Weissmann and Jenner & Block co-managing partner Ishan Bhabha (PDFs at bottom of page):