cases his supervisors once would have easily approved, now weren't good enough. >> jonathan novak: we been achieving incred then suddenly, it stopped. >> whitaker: novak prosecuted cases brought to him by joe rannazzisi's investigators. he said his case load started to slow down dramatically. >> novak: these were not cases where it was black-- where it was grey. these were cases where the evidence was crystal clear that there was wrongdoing going on. >> whitaker: he said his bosses started to bog down the system, demanding ever more evidence. >> novak: but now, three undercovers by four officers over three months, that wouldn't be enough. maybe we need an expert to explain how recording equipment works. maybe we need an expert to explain the system for prescribing. what's a prescription? it-- it-- it felt-- it felt honestly confusing and almost insane. where-- where was this coming from? >> whitaker: jim geldhof says his investigations were getting bogged down, too. he was looking into one mid- sized distributor that had shipped more than 28 million pain pills to pharmacies in west vi

jonathan novak who worked in the dea legal office says what the bill really did was strip the agencyits ability to immediately freeze suspicious shipments of prescription narcotics to kth u.s. streets. >> they're toothless. i don't know how they stop this now. it's, a very sad state of affairs. >> reporter: last year, the bill was presented to congress and passed both houses through unanimous consent. with no recorded votes. >> without objection the bill is read a third time and passed. >> i just don't understand why congress would pass a bill that strips us of our authority in the height of an opioid epidemic. in places like congressman marino's district. >> i was a prosecutor and united states attorney. >> congressman marino has been nominated to be the next drug czar. what was your reaction when you heard that? >> total disbelief. >> the bill was bad. him being the drug czar is a lot worse. >> today, president trump said he is going to "look into" marino's nomination. if i think it is 1% negative to what we want to do, he said, i will make a change. the health care distribution al

attorney jonathan novak told "the washington post" that former washington lawyers now working for industry were pressing their own colleagues. as a result, de la campa enformat action slowed. "60 minutes" found 46 people who went from the d.e.a. into drug industry roles, including lobbying. >> it is, indeed, time to drain the swamp in washington, d.c. >> reporter: special interests are part of the fabric of washington, and despite donald trump's campaign promise, the resolving door between government and industry keeps on spinning. his front-runner to be health and human services pharmaceutical executive. mr. trump's nominee to serve as a top bank reg lairts, joseph otting, used to be a bank c.e.o. and while oting awaits confirmation, keith noreika, who represents banks at his former law firm is filling in, but he's designated a special government employee, exempting him from president trump's executive order restricting lobbyists who joined the administration from working on anything they lobbied for, for two years. but that rule hasn't stopped the president from nominating a coal lobbyis

jonathan novak, who worked in the dea's legal office, says what the bill really did was strip the agency of its ability to immediately freeze suspicious chipments of prescription narcotics to keep the drugs off u.s. streets. >> i don't know how they stop this now. it's a very sad state of affairs. >> reporter: last year the bill was presented to congress and passed both houses through unanimous consent with no recorded votes. >> without objection the bill is read a third time and passed. >> i just don't understand why congress would pass a bill that strips us of our authority in the height of an opioid epidemic in places like congressman marino's district. >> i was a prosecutor and a united states attorney. >> reporter: congressman marino has been nominated to be the next drug czar. what was your reaction when you heard that? >> total disbelief. >> the bill was bad. him being the drug czar is a lot worse. >> reporter: today president trump said he's going to "look into marino's nomination." "if i think it's 1% neg toif what we want to do," he said, "i'll make a change." the healthcare di

suddenly he said he ran into road blocks from one of attorney jonathan novak's bosses. >> i spent a yearis case. i sent it down there and it's never good enough. every time i talk to this guy he wants something else. i get it for him and that's still not good enough. this goes on and on and on and on. and when these road blocks keep getting thrown up in your face at that point you know they just don't want the case. >> martha: democrat joe manchin is a west virginia senator he is calling on the white house withdraw the nomination of tom marino as drug czar. good to be with you tonight. >> good to be with you, martha. >> martha: incredible story and wreaks of swamp when you go through it in terms of who has influence in washington. this bill, when it passed originally, you didn't vote on it, didn't get a chance to vote on it? >> no, how that works, it goes through the committees, okay. the committee was on help, which is health and finance. so those two committees basically work the bill. if they don't find any reason or fault and unanimous coming out of the committee no democrat or repub

jonathan novak who worked in the dea's legal office says what the bill really did was strip the agency of its ability to immediately free suspicious shipments of narcotics to keep drugs off the streets, what the dea calls diversion. >> you're not going to be able to hold anyone higher up the food chain account snoobl because of this law. >> because of this law. >> how hard does it make your job in going after the whole sale distributors? >> i would say it makes it nearly impossible. >> reporter: this 2015 memo supports that. it states it could result in increase died version, abuse, and public health safety consequences. >> they're toothless. i don't know how they stop this now. it's a very sad state of affairs. >> the investigation found the drug industry contributed at least $1.5 million to 23 lawmakers who cosponsored the bill, weakening enforcement laws at the height of the opioid epidemic. thomas moreno, the chief advocate, is now president tr p trump's nominee to be federal drug czar. nancy cordes is on capitol hill about the billen its key sponsors. good morning. >> good morning