Mueller report stays off-limits to lawmakers through election
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a significant blow to House Democrats’ efforts to see secret grand jury material from Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying it would decide next term whether Congress is authorized to see the material.
The decision to hear the case next fall means the House Judiciary Committee can’t have access to the material before the election.
A lower court ruled this spring that the committee was entitled to see the previously withheld material from Mueller’s probe, which also investigated whether President Donald Trump obstructed the special counsel’s work.
A Supreme Court decision even before the end of the current congressional term in January is unlikely.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco had told the Supreme Court it should decide for itself the “significant separation of powers” issues raised in the case.
Despite the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Congress has no need for the information, Francisco wrote in a brief to the court.
“The House already has impeached the president, the Senate already has acquitted him, and neither (the committee) nor the House has provided any indication that a second impeachment is imminent,” Francisco wrote.
House General Counsel Douglas Letter had told the court the withheld material “remains central to the committee’s ongoing investigation into the president’s conduct,” adding that the committee’s probe “did not cease with the conclusion of the impeachment trial.”
The House went to court last July, before the formal start of its impeachment proceedings involving the president’s alleged effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, now the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Trump in November.
Mueller’s report found insufficient evidence to conclude the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, and Mueller neither exonerated nor accused Trump of obstructing justice.
The Justice Department released a redacted version of Mueller’s report and said it would provide congressional leaders with the full report minus the grand jury materials.
The secret sections of the special counsel’s report the House wants to access are separate from the material the Justice Department recently released detailing some of the evidence aired at the trial of Trump associate Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress.
The D.C. Circuit said the House was legally engaged in the kind of judicial process that exempts Congress from secrecy rules typically shielding grand jury materials.