Here's how subpoenaed Trump allies are exploiting the law to 'run out the clock' on justice

It's a race to the finish line as allies of former President Donald J. Trump have proven "adept at using judicial delay to withhold information" from Congress in a Biden Justice Department, a New York Times report presented Thursday.

It took nearly two-and-a-half years for a federal judge to rule that the Treasury Department could provide the former president’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.

"The twisting saga of that case — with dozens of motions, hearings, lawyer changes and rulings — gives an indication of how House subpoenas of Mr. Trump’s aides and allies might go as they try to run out the clock on the current Congress and hope for Republican control in 2023, when new House leaders would simply drop the inquiries," the Times reported. "The House’s inquiry into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, a select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic and the Ways and Means Committee are all counting on the courts to deliver accountability."

Peter Navarro coordinated the Trump administration’s pandemic response through his role overseeing the Defense Production Act. On Wednesday, Navarro acknowledged that his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis was dictated by Trump’s assertion of executive privilege, and out of his control. Navarro said he wasn't looking to delay a response “until Republicans inevitably take over the House in 2022,” but added he would "beat" Democrats "on the law, and I will make them look like the fools they are."

READ: REVEALED: Trump pals are paying former AG's law firm to peek into the Jan. 6 investigation

“There are people who believe that they can stall and delay themselves out of the truth, and you know, to a certain extent, they have been rewarded,” said Representative Dan Kildee (D-MI) and a Ways and Means Committee member. “Ultimately, most of us have great faith that justice will be done and the facts will become known. But time is something that works against us, and they know it.”

“The law is not on their side at all, so the only thing they can do is what often happens in litigation, which is to drag it out and seek to delay because the elections are coming,” said William Banks, a professor of law and public policy at Syracuse University and the founding director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law.

"Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said a huge difference between the first two years of Democratic control of the House and now is President Biden, who has aligned his White House counsel and his Justice Department with the House’s oversight efforts," the Times reported.

“The legislative and executive branches are completely in agreement with each other, that this material is not privileged and needs to be turned over to Congress,” Raskin said. “So I think things have been moving much more quickly.”