Roger Stone Ally Andrew Miller Will Testify Before Mueller Grand Jury

(Bloomberg) -- Andrew Miller, a former aide to Republican political operative Roger Stone, will testify before a federal grand jury on Friday, ending a yearlong battle over a subpoena issued by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Miller and his attorney, Paul Kamenar, gave up their fight in an appearance Wednesday before Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington. A day earlier, the U.S. appeals court that rejected his challenge formally returned the case to her and, with it, the power to have Miller arrested and jailed.

After losing a battle over the lawfulness of Mueller’s appointment, Kamenar made a last-ditch attempt to quash the grand jury subpoena by arguing Stone had already been indicted, rendering his client’s testimony unnecessary, he said by phone.

“You can’t abuse the grand jury by going back to them and backfilling for your case,” Kamenar said.

But Miller’s testimony may yet be sought to establish that Stone or others committed offenses not charged.

Mueller, in a news conference earlier Wednesday, said his office is now officially closed and that he is leaving the Justice Department for private life.

The last person indicted by the special counsel, Stone is accused of lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks, obstruction of an investigation and witness tampering. He has pleaded not guilty and moved to dismiss the case. His trial is set for Nov. 5 in Washington.

Kadia Koroma, a spokeswoman for Washington U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, confirmed Miller will appear Friday before the grand jury panel established by Mueller that is still hearing evidence. She provided no additional details. Grand jury proceedings are conducted in secret

The accord ends another subpoena-related fight over Mueller’s authority to lead the two-year probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, possible coordination with President Donald Trump’s campaign and the president’s potential obstruction of that probe. The identity of the other combatant, a foreign-government-owned business from which records were sought, remains unknown. It lost, too.

The cases are In Re Grand Jury Investigation, 18-gj-00034, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington) and In Re Grand Jury Subpoena, 18-3071, 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, Peter Blumberg

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