SCOTUS blocks release of Mueller grand jury materials to House committee
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On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the House Judiciary Committee from seeing grand jury materials referenced in the report by former special counsel Robert Mueller.
The Supreme Court stayed a federal appeals court decision that allowed release of the materials, report the New York Times and the Washington Post.
As a result of the stay, the committee may not be able to see the materials before the 2020 presidential election, according to the New York Times.
The Supreme Court’s stay gives the Justice Department time to file a cert petition and the Supreme Court time to decide the case, if it grants cert.
The D.C. Circuit had ruled 2-1 on March 10 that the committee could see redacted parts of the Mueller report that dealt with grand jury information, as well as underlying grand jury materials.
The appeals court said the committee could see the documents under an exception in the federal rules, allowing disclosure of grand jury materials “preliminarily to or in connection with a judicial proceeding.”
The court said the exception applies to impeachment proceedings, such as an ongoing congressional investigation into President Donald Trump’s conduct as described in the Mueller report.
The House said it wanted information about whether Trump had obstructed justice; Mueller had not decided the issue.
