House Democrats Must Wait to See Redacted Mueller Papers

(Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats weighing President Donald Trump’s impeachment will have to wait to see a fuller version of Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its accompanying grand jury materials.

Trump administration lawyers won a postponement of a court-ordered Oct. 30 deadline for handing over the records, which the House Judiciary Committee has sought since shortly after the special counsel testified before Congress in July.

A U.S. appeals court in Washington granted the Justice Department’s request for a delay while the government pursues a longer pause pending the outcome of an appeal of chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s Oct. 25 ruling. The administration lodged similar requests in both courts after stating its intention to appeal Howell’s ruling in court papers filed Monday.

In her 75-page decision, Howell rejected arguments that the House Democrats weren’t entitled to invade grand jury secrecy because they weren’t engaged in a proper judicial proceeding.

Despite the appeals court order, Howell issued a ruling later on Tuesday denying the DOJ’s request to put the release of the documents on hold until the appeal is resolved. She said the DOJ isn’t likely to win an appeal and that both the House and the public have an interest in gaining immediate access to the grand jury material.

The appeals court decision to put the release of the documents on hold though still appears to remain in force. The DOJ and the House were told to file briefs on the issue of a long-term stay with the appeals court by Nov. 5.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Sept. 24 that her chamber would undertake an impeachment inquiry, after it received a whistle-blower complaint alleging that Trump had tied $391 million in Ukrainian aid already approved by Congress to that nation’s willingness to investigate his presidential rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son Hunter for possible corruption in Ukraine. The inquiry is focused on Ukraine but will inevitably include events that Mueller, who stepped down in May, investigated in his 22-month probe.

Recognizing the inquiry as a necessary precursor to full-blown proceedings, the judge wrote, “Impeachment based on anything less than all relevant evidence would compromise the public’s faith in the process.”

The Judiciary Committee opposed the Justice Department’s request for a stay pending resolution of the appeal, calling the grand jury papers “essential to its urgent impeachment inquiry.” But it told both the district and appeals courts it would consent to a seven-day “administrative stay” allowing the court more time to consider the government’s request for longer-term relief.

The district court case is In re: Application of the Committee on the Judiciary, 19-gj-48, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington). The appellate case is In re: Application of the Committee on the Judiciary, 19-5288, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit (Washington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey, Joe Schneider

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