At 2:59 p.m. on Feb. 11, Aaron Zelinsky, one of the lead prosecutors in the criminal case against Trump ally Roger Stone, sent an email notifying his supervisor J.P. Cooney that he was withdrawing from Stone's case.

In an email one minute later, according to the time stamp, Cooney tried to stop him.

"I am not approving of you withdrawing from this case right now," Cooney wrote in one of a set of emails obtained by BuzzFeed News through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Cooney was too late -- Zelinsky had filed his withdrawal from the Stone case with the federal district court in Washington. [...]

Zelinsky testified that a supervisor told him that the interim US attorney leading the office at the time, Timothy Shea, wanted to give Stone special treatment because Shea was "afraid of the president." [...]

After news broke that the prosecution team had withdrawn, Zelinsky received a message of encouragement from another assistant US attorney in Maryland, P. Michael Cunningham: "Very proud of you!"

"Thanks! Just doing what any of us would have done in the same circumstance," Zelinsky replied.