U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes laid into Department of Justice lawyers Friday for telling DOJ Tax Division attorneys to ignore congressional subpoenas even as prosecutors sent former Trump aide Peter Navarro to prison for doing just that.
Politico reports that she was appalled by the blatant hypocrisy:
“There’s a person in jail right now because you all brought a criminal lawsuit against him because he did not appear for a House subpoena,” Reyes said, referring to the recent imprisonment of Peter Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas. … And you don’t have to show up?”
“I think it’s quite rich you guys pursue criminal investigations and put people in jail for not showing up,” but then direct current executive branch employees to take the same approach, the judge added. “You all are making a bunch of arguments that you would never accept from any other litigant.”
She certainly looks annoyed in this picture: