A federal judge scolded the Justice Department on Friday for refusing to allow attorneys involved in the Hunter Biden investigation to comply with subpoenas issued by House Republicans.
The House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit last month in the federal District Court in Washington seeking to force DOJ lawyers Mark Daly and Jack Morgan to provide testimony as part of the panel’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
The GOP-led panel co-leading the impeachment probe related to the 81-year-old president’s alleged involvement in his family’s business dealings claims the DOJ has “thwarted” efforts by the committee to get depositions from the DOJ Tax Division officials.
District Judge Ana Reyes, an appointee of President Biden, argued that the Justice Department was being hypocritical for instructing Daly and Morgan not to comply with the committee’s subpoenas while throwing others in prison for similar actions.
“There’s a person in jail right now because you all brought a criminal lawsuit against him because he did not appear for a House subpoena,” Reyes said during a hearing on the Judiciary Committee’s lawsuit, according to Politico.
Reyes seemed to be referring to former Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was sentenced in January to four months behind bars after being convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas,” Reyes added, directing her ire at DOJ attorney James Gilligan.
“I find it rich that you pursue criminal action and put people in jail for defying congressional subpoenas, then say this here,” the judge continued, according to Courthouse News Service.
“You all are making a bunch of arguments that you would never accept from any other litigant.”
Reyes suggested that the DOJ’s position, which she characterized as “if you don’t agree with a subpoena … you can unilaterally not show up,” would delight defense attorneys across the country.
When the judge asked if the DOJ would commit to instructing Daly and Morgan to testify if the House Judiciary Committee dropped its insistence that government counsel not be in the room for their depositions, Gilligan wouldn’t answer in the affirmative.
“I cannot answer that now,” he said.
To which Reyes responded, “Are you kidding me?”
The judge, however, signaled that while the Tax Division attorneys should appear before Congress, they likely cannot be forced to answer questions that would violate several layers of privileges that Daly and Morgan could invoke.
Daly and Morgan have been involved in the DOJ’s five-year-long probe into Hunter Biden’s alleged criminal activity, which has thus far resulted in 12 charges against the 53-year-old first son related to tax and gun crimes.
The impeachment inquiry into the president is also seeking to determine whether Joe Biden pressured the DOJ to tread lightly in its probe of his son, which House investigators believe Morgan and Daly can shed light on.
Reyes ordered House of Representatives general counsel Matthew Berry, who is representing the Judiciary Committee in the lawsuit, and Gilligan to negotiate for four hours next week on ways in which they could settle their disagreements out of court.
“I don’t think the taxpayers want to fund a grudge match between the executive and the legislative,” she said. “Bad cases make bad law … this is a bad, bad case for both of you.”