Judge Berates DOJ for Defying Congressional Subpoenas

In an image from video, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes speaks during a hearing in Washington on June 22, 2022. (Senate Judiciary Committee via The Epoch Times)

A federal judge on April 5 told U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys that the defiance of congressional subpoenas was hypocritical.

“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,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said, Politico reported. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas.”

She added: I think it’s quite rich you guys pursue criminal investigations and put people in jail for not showing up. ... You all are making a bunch of arguments that you would never accept from any other litigant.”

The judge was referring to Peter Navarro, a former adviser to ex-President Donald Trump, who recently started a prison sentence over a refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena.

The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee requested DOJ tax attorneys Mark Daly and Jack Morgan answer questions about the handling of the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. The DOJ declined the request, prompting subpoenas in 2023 and 2024.

The DOJ then directed the attorneys not to comply with the subpoenas, citing how the committee would not allow government lawyers to attend depositions. Officials cited one source, a 2019 opinion from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel that said “congressional subpoenas that purport to require agency employees to appear without agency counsel are legally invalid and are not subject to civil or criminal enforcement.”

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The panel in March sued Mr. Daly and Mr. Morgan over the defiance of the subpoenas.

In the hearing on Friday, a status conference, DOJ officials defended instructing the attorneys not to comply with the decrees. James Gilligan, one of them, said the matter is different from the cases of Mr. Navarro and Steve Bannon, another former adviser to President Trump, because Mr. Daly and Mr. Morgan are current government employees. Mr. Gilligan also said the choice to instruct the attorneys to defy Congress came after deliberations “at a high level,” Courthouse News Service reported.

Judge Reyes, appointed by President Biden, did not seem impressed with those arguments and also criticized the reliance on the 2019 DOJ opinion.

“Last time I checked, the Office of Legal Counsel was not the court,” she said, according to Politico.

The judge later expressed surprise when Mr. Gilligan would not promise to tell the attorneys to comply with the subpoenas if lawmakers reversed their stance on government lawyers taking part in the depositions.

“Are you kidding me?” she said.

Lawmakers have said they want to hear from the attorneys because of the unusual aspects of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Biden, including how Mr. Daly and Mr. Morgan initially said the DOJ should charge him for tax crimes over actions taken in 2014 and 2015, but later said he should not be hit with charges over those years. The attorneys “have firsthand knowledge of the irregularities in DOJ’s investigation that appear to have benefited Hunter Biden,” the committee’s lawyers said in a filing.

Judge Reyes also said she was confused as to why lawmakers are working so hard to compel testimony from Mr. Daly and Mr. Morgan, given that, if they testify, they could claim privilege in response to most or all questions.

“I don’t think the taxpayers want to fund a grudge match between the executive and the legislative [branches] about when someone has to show up or not show up to a subpoena, when at the end of the day none of this is going to get decided anytime soon,” Judge Reyes said, according to NBC. “I’m confident that you’re not keeping the impeachment inquiry open long enough for the D.C. Circuit to render a decision.”

She ordered lawyers for the parties to meet next week and try to hammer out a compromise. If the parties do not reach a compromise, Mr. Daly and Mr. Morgan may be placed under oath to answer questions about the negotiations between the parties, the judge said.