Report: DOJ Tells Jim Jordan Subpoenas Not Enforceable
Report: DOJ Tells Jim Jordan Subpoenas Not Enforceable
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By Charlie McCarthy | Wednesday, 30 August 2023 09:20 AM EDT
The Biden administration’s Department of Justice on Tuesday night said it will not cooperate with a House committee’s subpoenas for two FBI agents involved in the department’s investigation of Hunter Biden, the Washington Examiner reported.
The DOJ says it will not cooperate because the House Judiciary Committee had prohibited department lawyers at the agents’ depositions, DOJ Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte claimed in a letter to committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
A copy of the letter was obtained by the Examiner.
Uriarte told Jordan his subpoenas to the two agents, special agents Thomas Sobocinski and Ryeshia Holley of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, “lack legal effect and cannot constitutionally be enforced.”
“The subpoenas issued by the Committee prohibit the attendance of agency counsel at appearances by two FBI employees where the Committee has indicated it will ask questions regarding information they learned within the scope of their official duties, including regarding the ongoing criminal investigation,” Uriarte wrote, the Examiner reported.
The Judiciary Committee’s deposition rule aligns with House rules, which do not permit department counsel at depositions.
Uriarte added that compelling testimony from the two FBI agents “was premature” because the DOJ was open to continuing “discussions” with Jordan, the Examiner said.
The House Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees early last week subpoenaed IRS investigators and DOJ officials present at or with direct knowledge of a 2022 meeting in which U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss allegedly claimed he was prevented from bringing charges against Hunter Biden for tax crimes.
The subpoenas issued came after the DOJ and IRS refused to comply with multiple requests for voluntary transcribed interviews with the witnesses, including Sobocinski and Holley.
In the letter to Jordan, Uriarte indicated that “good-faith” negotiations to have the two agents appear voluntarily with DOJ lawyers instead of appearing in the form of a deposition remained possible.
