U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes slammed lawyers for the Department of Justice for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the U.S. House of Representatives when Peter Navarro is sitting in prison for the same conduct.
Navarro is serving a four-month sentence for refusing to obey a subpoena from the January 6 Committee. Navarro argued that it would have been a violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers for a presidential aide to comply.
The Biden Department of Justice has relied on the same argument in shielding two of its lawyers, Mark Daly and Jack Morgan, from subpoenas by the House Judiciary Committee in its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The committee wants to ask Daly and Morgan about their role in investigating the president’s son, Hunter Biden, for tax violations that were slow-walked and almost dropped before a federal judge in Delaware questioned a plea deal.
Politico reported:
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee on the federal District Court in Washington, spent nearly an hour accusing Justice Department attorneys of rank hypocrisy for instructing two other lawyers in the DOJ Tax Division not to comply with the House subpoenas.
“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, referring to the recent imprisonment of Peter Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas. … And you don’t have to show up?”
“I think it’s quite rich you guys pursue criminal investigations and put people in jail for not showing up,” but then direct current executive branch employees to take the same approach, the judge added. “You all are making a bunch of arguments that you would never accept from any other litigant.”
Judge Reyes, a Biden appointee, also took a dim view of the House subpoenas themselves, but said that the lawyers should still have to show up at the House committee, if only to exert their privileges against answering questions.
She said that both sides had bad cases, and ordered them to work out a deal — and the cost of continued litigation.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
