House Republicans filed a lawsuit Thursday against two Department of Justice officials who were involved in the department’s prosecution of Hunter Biden, saying the officials defied subpoenas by refusing to appear for depositions.
The House Judiciary Committee asked in its complaint that the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., force the officials, both of whom work in the DOJ Tax Division, to comply with the subpoenas and meet with the committee for interviews.
The officials, senior litigation counsel Mark Daly and trial attorney Jack Morgan, were present at a meeting at DOJ headquarters in June 2022 about prosecution decisions related to Biden. Gary Shapley, an IRS criminal investigator-turned-whistleblower who was also present at the meeting, alleged to Congress that the Tax Division opposed bringing charges against Biden during that meeting.
The committee has been engaged for several months in a tedious back-and-forth with the DOJ about obtaining testimony from Daly and Morgan, but the department has resisted allowing the depositions.
The DOJ has cited numerous reasons for objecting to the pair testifying, including that the department does not permit line-level employees to testify, particularly about open matters such as the Biden case. The DOJ brought nine tax charges against the first son last year, and the first son is currently fighting them in court. Allowing DOJ officials to speak outside of court about the case could jeopardize it, the DOJ has said.
The DOJ has also pointed to a Trump-era policy that established that DOJ lawyers are permitted to be present at depositions when privileged information could be involved. The House Judiciary Committee disagrees with that argument.
“The duty to comply with the Subpoenas (by appearing for depositions) is separate from any duty to disclose purportedly privileged material,” attorneys for the committee wrote in the court filings.
The attorneys repeatedly cited the House’s impeachment inquiry as the basis for their lawsuit, noting one of the inquiry’s tasks included determining whether Hunter Biden received preferential treatment from the department during its yearslong investigation of him. The attorneys noted that the House is also examining whether President Joe Biden pressured the DOJ in any way to go easy on his son. House investigators believe Morgan and Daly could speak to this, though several higher-level DOJ officials, including Morgan and Daly’s boss, have already denied in interviews with the committee that politics influenced decision-making in the Hunter Biden case.
“The Committee’s need for Daly’s and Morgan’s testimony is urgent,” the House attorneys wrote. “Every day that they defy the Committee’s Subpoenas delays and hinders its investigation at a time when the Committee is seeking to conclude its fact gathering.”
The DOJ brought nine tax charges in December against Hunter Biden related to the tax years 2016 to 2019, but Republicans have still raised suspicions that the first son was undercharged.
The committee attorneys asked in their complaint for the court to issue a preliminary injunction ordering Morgan and Daly to testify about lapsed statutes of limitations in the Hunter Biden case related to the 2014 and 2015 tax years.
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The attorneys also said the committee wants the pair to testify about “why they apparently changed their views about whether charges should be brought for those years” and “whether they were pressured in any way to argue” against charging Hunter Biden.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the DOJ for comment.
