A federal judge frustrated by the legal wrangling over a House probe into Hunter Biden's finances got GOP investigators and Justice Department attorneys to agree to punt the dispute until next year.
The deal was agreed to after a tense, two-hour hearing Wednesday, Politico reported, where U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes threatened attorneys on both sides that she would order their bosses — Attorney General Merrick Garland and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) — to litigate the dispute next week in her Washington courtroom themselves.
“Don’t test me on this. ... I’m not bluffing,” said Reyes, according to the report.
ALSO READ: 'He’s mentally ill:' NY laughs ahead of Trump's Madison Square Garden rally
“The fight emerged from House Republicans’ long-running search for evidence that the White House exerted political pressure on officials who investigated the younger Biden’s failure to pay income taxes. As part of that inquiry, the House Judiciary Committee tried to obtain testimony from two Justice Department tax lawyers who worked on the case,” Politico reported.
The judge, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, has overseen the dispute for months “with increasing exasperation," the publication noted. By next year, when the parties meet again, “a new Congress and a new president will have been sworn in — developments likely to diminish both sides’ appetite for a fight linked to an all-but-defunct effort to impeach Joe Biden," Politico added.
The Wednesday hearing was notable for the judge's brutal smackdown, including at the House’s persistent belief that two Justice Department attorneys would have any relevant information to the Judiciary Committee’s investigation.
“I’m willing to bet everything I own, plus my dog Scout, that these two line attorneys are going to have zero information to confirm your suspicion,” Reyes said, according to Politico.
She also expressed frustration that $1.1 million in taxpayer money has already been spent in the legal battle over the subpoena, adding that it was “an outrageous waste of taxpayer funds,” Politico reported.
