The House Judiciary Committee has dismissed its own subpoena-related lawsuit against two Justice Department attorneys, a case that involved a dispute over whether agency counsel could sit in on congressional depositions.
The committee’s lawsuit, filed more than a year ago in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asked a federal court to compel the two officials to testify about the past criminal case against Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden.
But the Justice Department directed the two officials, Mark Daly and Jack Morgan, to defy the subpoenas because agency counsel would not be permitted to attend under House rules, according to last year’s lawsuit.
House General Counsel Matthew Berry filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on Friday. The notice said the committee could dismiss the case without a court order. A spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee declined to comment on the dismissal.
The committee, in the lawsuit, argued that a witness might be less inclined to share information that makes their agency look bad “if a lawyer representing that agency is sitting right next to him.”
Not allowing agency counsel to attend depositions is a legitimate way for the House to exercise its authority to adopt its own rules and procedures, the panel has argued.
The Justice Department had argued that the subpoenas were “invalid” and lacked “legal effect” due to the exclusion of agency counsel, according to letters sent to the officials’ attorneys.
“It therefore cannot constitutionally be enforced by civil or criminal means or through any inherent contempt power of Congress,” the letters stated.
The dismissal notice appears to bring to a close a lengthy dispute that originally started between the Republican-controlled committee and the Biden administration Justice Department.
Arguments from both sides had elicited sharp criticism from Judge Ana Reyes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who at one point ordered the sides to detail the costs of the “grudge match” between the executive and legislative branches.
Depositions filed last fall said the case had taken up hundreds of attorney hours at an approximate cost of more than $443,000.
Reyes, in court last year, told attorneys from the Justice Department and House general counsel’s office it was a “bad, bad case” for both sides.
Last fall, both sides decided to pause the case rather than have then-Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, appear for a hearing.
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