The House Judiciary Committee has initiated legal proceedings against two officials from the Department of Justice (DOJ). On Thursday, they filed a lawsuit citing noncompliance with subpoenas related to the investigation into Hunter Biden.
The individuals in question, Mark Daly, a senior litigation counsel, and Jack Morgan, a trial attorney in the DOJ’s Tax Division, are facing allegations of disobeying directives to participate in depositions issued by the committee.
Gary Shapley, an IRS criminal investigator turned whistleblower who was present at the June meeting, has testified to Congress alleging that the Tax Division opposed pursuing charges against Biden during the discussed meeting.
As per the complaint:
“The Committee requires testimony from both Mark Daly and Jack Morgan, two current or former Tax Division attorneys who have firsthand knowledge of the irregularities in DOJ’s investigation that appear to have benefited Hunter Biden.
For example, as members of the team that recommended what charges to bring against Hunter Biden, Daly and Morgan initially agreed that DOJ should file charges for tax crimes related to 2014 and 2015. But months later, they gave a key presentation and argued just the opposite—that Hunter Biden should not be charged for tax crimes related to those years DOJ ultimately allowed the statute of limitations for those charges to lapse. Daly and Morgan are thus crucial to the Committee’s investigation.
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. 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.
Because this investigation is also part of an impeachment inquiry, Daly and Morgan are likewise frustrating the Committee’s ability to determine whether President Biden has committed an impeachable offense. They are thus preventing the House from discharging its solemn power of impeachment, a power the Constitution vests exclusively in the House.
Daly, Morgan, and DOJ have not disputed that the Committee’s investigation is lawful. Nor have they disputed that Congress has the authority to pass legislation addressing the topic of the Committee’s investigation, or that it is entitled, as part of an impeachment inquiry, to investigate whether the President has abused his powers.
Indeed, multiple other DOJ officials have appeared before the Committee as part of its inquiry. Rather, DOJ has directed Daly and Morgan to defy the Committee’s Subpoenas only because, under House Rules, agency counsel (a lawyer who represents the Executive Branch’s interests, not Daly’s or Morgan’s) cannot attend.
Despite the Constitution’s clear command that each chamber of Congress “may determine the Rules of its Proceedings,” DOJ contends that subpoenas compelling testimony about an agency employee’s official duties, without agency counsel present, are unconstitutional and thus unenforceable.”
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