The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday it plans to appeal a judge’s order from last week compelling disclosure of materials from the Mueller report.

“A stay is warranted because, without a stay, the Department will be irreparably harmed,” the DOJ said in a court filing.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Once the information is disclosed, it cannot be recalled, and the confidentiality of the grand jury information will be lost for all time—particularly if Petitioner United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary (“HJC”) decides to publicize the now-secret grand jury materials, which it has asserted the power to do through a simple majority vote,” the DOJ wrote.

The agency asked Chief District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, to hold off on enforcing the Democratic subpoena while the case plays out.

In her Friday opinion, Howell rejected arguments by the DOJ that grand jury materials from former special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE's investigation must remain secret. She also ruled that the impeachment inquiry does not require a House floor vote.

"In carrying out the weighty constitutional duty of determining whether impeachment of the President is warranted, Congress need not redo the nearly two years of effort spent on the Special Counsel’s investigation, nor risk being misled by witnesses, who may have provided information to the grand jury and the Special Counsel that varies from what they tell [the House Judiciary Committee]," Howell wrote in her decision Friday.