Two Justice Department lawyers will likely have to testify before the House Judiciary Committee after a federal judge, who was appointed by President Biden, tore into government lawyers for barring the two federal employees from appearing. Judge Ana Reyes, who serves as a jurist on the district court for the District of Columbia, pointed out the hypocrisy of the government’s prosecution of former Trump advisor Peter Navarro, who refused to comply with a congressional subpoena, and their current assertion that Biden administration officials do no have to comply with the same orders.“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,” Judge Reyes said, referring to Mr. Navarro. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas. … And you don’t have to show up?”Judge Reyes’ remarks were first reported by Politico. “I think it’s quite rich you guys pursue criminal investigations and put people in jail for not showing up,” the judge continued. “You all are making a bunch of arguments that you would never accept from any other litigant.”Mr. Navarro was subpoenaed by the Select January 6 Committee but refused to appear, citing executive privilege protections. He recently reported to prison to serve a four-month sentence. The two current Justice Department employees who have refused to appear for depositions with the House Judiciary Committee are Mark Daly and Jack Morgan, both of whom work in the Tax Division and dealt with the investigation of Hunter Biden for alleged tax evasion. After years of looking into the first son’s finances, Special Counsel David Weiss is prosecuting him on nine charges of evading his tax payments. Messrs. Daly and Morgan attended a 2022 meeting with law enforcement officials where the decision was made to not prosecute Mr. Biden. A whistleblower from the Internal Revenue Service, Gary Shapley, first reported the meeting to congressional investigators and described the decision to not prosecute Mr. Biden as unprecedented. “When I took control of this particular investigation, I immediately saw deviations from the normal process,” Mr. Shapley told “CBS Evening News” in May. “It was way outside the norm of what I’ve experienced in the past.” He said prosecutors “slow-walked” the investigation for political purposes. On March 21, the Judiciary Committee sued Messrs. Daly and Morgan for not appearing for their depositions. “After DOJ refused to make Daly and Morgan available for voluntary interviews with the Committee, the Committee subpoenaed them to appear for depositions. But they defied the Subpoenas because their employer, DOJ, directed them not to appear,” the committee says in its lawsuit. “By refusing to appear, Daly and Morgan are frustrating Congress’s ability to conduct oversight and investigate Executive Branch corruption — a critical part of Congress’s Article I powers.”“The failure of Daly and Morgan to comply with their respective Subpoenas is impeding the Committee’s impeachment inquiry and its oversight of DOJ’s handling of the Hunter Biden investigation, matters of significant public concern,” the committee continues. “The Executive Branch’s purported reasons for frustrating this investigation lack merit, and the Committee asks this Court to compel both Daly and Morgan to appear before the Committee.”
