Almost 20 years ago, elected district attorney Tom Marino hand-delivered a request to clear the criminal record of northern Pennsylvania car dealer Jay Kilheeney, a man Marino called a friend who was convicted six years earlier of delivering 2 grams of cocaine.

Lycoming County Common Pleas Judge Dudley Anderson, in his first year on the bench, granted the expungement. But he changed his mind upon learning he was asked less than three weeks after a more senior judge, Kenneth Brown, denied the request.

Anderson rescinded his order and requested that copies be returned, The Citizens' Voice of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, reported, though Kilheeney, who went on to commit many more crimes, reportedly kept a copy that he used to open a Ford dealership.

Marino, now a Republican congressman, is reportedly President Donald Trump’s choice to be the nation’s “drug czar” as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The appointment would require Senate confirmation, and opponents of Marino see the case as potential fodder to help derail the nomination.

“He doesn’t appear to be constrained by any concerns about being hypocritical,” says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which favors marijuana legalization and non-criminal approaches to drug abuse. “If it’s a matter of helping out a friend, he’ll do that. But if it’s stuffing the prisons with low-level offenders, he’s more than happy to do that.”

In the House since 2011, the former prosecutor has built a reputation as a drug policy hardliner. He voted against protecting state medical marijuana programs from federal authorities and said at a hearing last year that people convicted of drug crimes should be forcibly hospitalized.

Bill Piper, the DPA’s senior director for national affairs, says the expungement controversy can be seen within a larger context of drug prohibition.

“We find that law enforcement officials and elected officials often ignore affluent or connected people and in some cases give them preferential treatment,” he says. “That Marino gave his friend special treatment while waging a punitive war on everyone else ought to disqualify him from being drug czar.”

The expungement first became a public controversy when Marino was running for Congress in 2010. Then-Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Pa., accused Marino of unethical “judge-shopping” and in an attack ad called it "a personal cover-up for a cocaine dealer."

The Citizens' Voice reviewed the court records, which showed that on June 18, 1998, Judge Brown refused an expungement request, ruling he had “no authority to grant a petition for expungement on a conviction for delivery of a controlled substance.” Less than three weeks later, a near-identical request was submitted to Judge Anderson.

In 2010, Marino defended himself through a spokesman who said there was nothing out of the ordinary about him hand-delivering the expungement request. The spokesman said the men were “social acquaintances” and that he did not go judge-shopping.

In a conversation with U.S. News about whether the case is relevant to his possible work as drug czar, Marino spokesman Ryan Barton addressed questions by repeating “nothing improper took place.”

Judge Anderson, who granted the expungement order, tells U.S. News he remembers Kilheeney but doesn’t have a clear recollection of the 1998 controversy.

“I’m foggy on it, it was 20 years ago,” he says.

“Maybe I shouldn’t comment on all this because I’m the dupe,” Anderson jokes.

Ronald Travis, the attorney who handled the expungement matter for Kilheeney, declined to comment on the controversy or Marino’s involvement, saying only that “I have no interest in speaking with anyone about that situation.”

Kilheeney did not respond to a Facebook message requesting comment. Two former workplaces did not have his current contact information, nor did an attorney who previously represented him.

Marino’s spokesman would not comment on reports that Marino will be nominated as ONDCP director. A spokesman for White House office also could not confirm the reports.

If nominated, there are other avenues of potential attack from his critics.

Another prominent 2010 campaign issue was Marino’s 2006 reference for businessman and convicted felon Louis DeNaples, who sought successfully to open a casino. Marino was then a U.S. attorney.

The Associated Press reported that Marino's office was investigating DeNaples at the time of his reference. He resigned shortly after the reference was reported and worked for DeNaples earning a $250,000 salary, according to the AP, before running for Congress.

Marino denied any wrongdoing in serving as a reference.

Marino may also find criticism for his support of successful 2016 legislation that critics say limits the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to crack down on pharmacies over-dispensing medicine. Though he was a vocal supporter, the measure passed unanimously in the House and Senate.