The Supreme Court is rejecting House Democrats request to access redacted grand jury material from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The court’s ruling on Wednesday blocks Democrats from accessing secret grand jury transcripts and information related to Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Additionally, the court gave the Justice Department until June 1 to file an appeal of a lower court ruling that required the department to hand over the grand jury documents to the House Judiciary Committee.
Earlier this year, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Justice Department must hand over the Mueller documents to the House.
However, on May 7, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to block the release of the documents temporarily.
Congressional Democrats said the documents could help them determine if Trump obstructed Mueller’s investigation — which might lead them to draw up another article of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) blasted the Trump administration’s move to block the release of the documents.
“The President rants about witch hunts and claims he wants the truth to come out,” Schiff wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
He added, “Yet Barr’s Department of Justice has gone to the Supreme Court to avoid turning over Mueller’s grand jury records to Congress. To their dishonesty, you can add, hypocrisy.”
The President rants about witch hunts and claims he wants the truth to come out.
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) May 19, 2020
Yet Barr's Department of Justice has gone to the Supreme Court to avoid turning over Mueller’s grand jury records to Congress.
To their dishonesty, you can add, hypocrisy. https://t.co/0WsiQal82J
However, Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued that lawmakers do not need the grand jury material, “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.”
But, House General Counsel Douglas N. Letter told the court the information “remains central to the committee’s ongoing investigation into the president’s conduct.”
Additionally, Letter said that House Democrats’ investigation “did not cease with the conclusion of the impeachment trial.”
