(Discern Media)—A federal judge appointed by President Joe Biden, Ana Reyes, criticized the Justice Department’s apparent double standard regarding the enforcement of subpoenas. The criticism came during a hearing on the House Judiciary Committee’s lawsuit, which sought to compel testimony from two DOJ attorneys, Mark Daly and Jack Morgan, as part of its investigation into the Biden family and the impeachment inquiry into the president.
Reyes’ remarks seemed to reference the case of Peter Navarro, a former Trump advisor currently serving a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a subpoena related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Navarro argued that he could not cooperate with the committee because former President Trump had invoked executive privilege, an argument that lower courts have rejected.
The judge expressed her astonishment at the DOJ’s stance, particularly in light of Navarro’s conviction and the fact that former White House adviser Steve Bannon received a similar sentence for the same charge. “I think it’s quite rich you guys pursue criminal investigations and put people in jail for not showing up,” Reyes said. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas.”
Daly and Morgan were subpoenaed for their firsthand knowledge of the Justice Department’s investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes while he served on the board of Ukrainian company Burisma. The committee claims that the team, which included Daly and Morgan, initially recommended charges against Hunter Biden but later reversed their decision, allowing the statute of limitations to expire.
Justice Department attorney James Gilligan attempted to justify the DOJ’s decision to defy the subpoena, citing a Trump-era Office of Legal Counsel opinion that executive branch employees could ignore such subpoenas if Justice Department lawyers were not allowed to be present during their testimony. However, Reyes was unimpressed with this reasoning and was astonished that Gilligan would not commit to instructing Daly and Morgan to testify if the committee were to drop its insistence that government counsel not be in the room for their depositions.
The judge’s criticism highlights the ongoing tensions between the executive and legislative branches and raises questions about the consistency of the Justice Department’s enforcement of subpoenas.
Sound off about this article on The Liberty Daily Substack.
Article generated from corporate media reports.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
