Under the Radar Blog Archives Select Date… August, 2020 July, 2020 June, 2020 May, 2020 April, 2020 March, 2020 February, 2020 January, 2020 December, 2019 November, 2019 October, 2019 September, 2019

Attorney General William Barr's pledge to release a version of the Mueller report for public release by mid-April came with several caveats. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Press group asks judge to lift grand jury secrecy in Mueller report

A group advocating for journalists and First Amendment rights is asking a judge to clear away one of the key obstacles the Justice Department is citing as grounds for withholding portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report: the presence of information gathered through the secret actions of a grand jury.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a petition Monday with Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, asking her to rule that officials need not withhold from the Congress — or the public — any grand jury material in Mueller’s report on his probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The move comes as Attorney General William Barr has pledged to prepare a version of the report for public release by mid-April. However, that pledge came with several caveats, including that the department would have to excise grand jury-related testimony and evidence.

Barr even noted in one letter that it could be a criminal offense for officials to release information covered by grand jury secrecy.

The new petition amounts to a pre-emptive step to take the grand-jury concern off the table by having Howell rule that the interests of public and Congress in seeing the information outweigh any other concerns.

“This Court should enable the release of the Special Counsel’s Report to the public to the greatest extent possible,” attorney Ted Boutrous and other lawyers wrote in the new filing. “Although the Special Counsel’s investigation has only recently concluded, the resulting report — and the grand jury material the Attorney General has proposed to redact therein—is of unique public and historical significance... The grand jury material at issue cuts to the core of our democracy.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the petition. (Note: This reporter serves on an oversight board for the Reporters’ Committee.)

The move by the journalists’ group is just the latest attempt to try to force disclosure of a broader portion or the entirety of Mueller’s report, notwithstanding Barr’s indication of the need for redactions.

On the same day Mueller sent his report to Barr, a Washington-based watchdog group — the Electronic Privacy Information Center — filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding access to the document.

In addition, on Monday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced plans to hold a vote on Wednesday to authorize the issuance of a subpoena to the Justice Department for a copy of Mueller’s report. That move wouldn’t guarantee a subpoena but would give Nadler permission to issue one at his discretion.

The Reporters’ Committee filing notes that federal court rules covering grand jury secrecy allow disclosure of counterintelligence-related information to officials with intelligence-related duties and permit even broader disclosure in connection with judicial proceedings.

Some courts have also held that judges have inherent authority to lift grand jury secrecy in other circumstances, although the Justice Department has rejected that view and is actively fighting it.

Back in 1974, a judge allowed a grand jury investigating Watergate to transmit a “road map” of its findings to the House Judiciary Committee as it considered potential impeachment of President Richard Nixon. A federal appeals court effectively blessed the disclosure by turning down a challenge brought by two Nixon aides.

The court’s opinion noted that Nixon had not lodged any objection to the disclosure. The new petition seeking to permit a more complete release of the Mueller report notes similarly that President Donald Trump has said he has no objection to making the report public in its entirety.

“It wouldn’t bother me at all,” the president told reporters last week, while adding that the decision was up to the attorney general.

Notwithstanding Trump’s comments, Barr has said portions of Mueller’s report could be redacted on other grounds, including to protect the privacy of “peripheral third parties,” ongoing investigations being handled by other prosecutors, and intelligence sources and methods.

