House entitled to Mueller jury testimony
WASHINGTON >> The Justice Department must give Congress secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, giving the House a significant win in a separationof-powers clash with the Trump administration.
The three-judge panel said in a 2-1 opinion that the House Judiciary Committee’s need for the material in its investigations of President Donald Trump outweighed the Justice Department’s interests in keeping the testimony secret. The opinion authorizes access to information that Democrats have sought since the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation, enabling lawmakers to review previously-undisclosed details from the two-year Russia probe.
Writing for the majority, Judge Judith Rogers said that with Mueller himself having “stopped short” of reaching conclusions about Trump’s conduct to avoid stepping on the House’s impeachment power, the committee was able to persuasively argue that it needed access to the underlying grand jury material to make its own determinations.
“Courts must take care not to second-guess the manner in which the House plans to proceed with its impeachment investigation or interfere with the House’s sole power of impeachment,” Rogers wrote, calling the committee’s request for the grand jury material “directly linked to its need to evaluate the conclusions reached and not reached by the Special Counsel.”
House Democrats cheered the opinion, with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Judiciary Committee chairman, saying the panel “remains committed to holding the President accountable to the rule of law and preventing improper interference in law enforcement investigations.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the ruling a rejection of the president’s “insistence that he is above the law” and a further rebuke to Attorney General William Barr. Last week, another federal judge scolded Barr in a separate case for what he said were misleading public statements by the attorney general about Mueller’s findings.
Judge Thomas Griffith issued a separate concurring opinion in Tuesday’s appeals court decision. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented, suggesting that the need for the testimony could have waned after Trump’s acquittal at a Senate impeachment trial last month.
“After all, the Committee sought these materials preliminary to an impeachment proceeding and the Senate impeachment trial has concluded. Why is this controversy not moot?” Rao wrote.
It is unclear when the materials might actually be turned over. The Trump administration can ask the full appeals court to rehear the case, and can appeal to the Supreme Court.