The warning was contained in a filing submitted to Howell opposing the administration’s request to stay her ruling granting the House Judiciary Committee access to the secret grand jury information Mueller relied on to write his final report.

“Every day that the Committee is without the redacted information undercuts the Committee’s ability to determine whether to impeach the President,” House general counsel Douglas Letter wrote.

“Delay in this case would not only hinder the House’s ability to consider impeachment quickly, but also enhance DOJ’s ability to run out the clock on the Committee’s impeachment inquiry altogether. … That would further undermine the public interest,” he added.

The Trump administration has appealed Howell’s decision, while also asking her and the D.C. Circuit to put off the Wednesday deadline she set for the Justice Department to turn over the Mueller materials.

When asking Howell for a stay, Justice Department attorneys asserted the Mueller investigation is now peripheral to the impeachment activity in the House, where a slew of witnesses have been appearing in closed-door sessions in recent days before the House Intelligence Committee to discuss allegations that Trump pushed to withhold U.S. security aid to Ukraine until the country opened an investigation into Joe Biden, his political rival and a leading Democratic presidential contender.

In the new filing, House lawyers disputed that Mueller’s investigation had become a footnote, insisting that the Judiciary Committee’s Mueller-related inquiry remained highly relevant to the existing impeachment process.

“DOJ is wrong about the scope of the House’s inquiry,” Letter wrote. “As the Speaker and the undersigned counsel have confirmed, the Committee’s investigation is part of the House’s impeachment inquiry.”

The House submission also criticizes — in two separate places — the Justice Department for an unusual aspect of their stay filing: its reliance on a Washington Post article that asserted Trump’s potential Mueller-related wrongdoing was now on the back burner as the Ukraine focus intensified.

“In seeking a stay, DOJ ignores Speaker Pelosi’s actual remarks … in favor of a news article that does not quote the Speaker on the relevant issue,” Letter wrote.

Howell had not ruled on the stay request by the time the appeals court issued its order Tuesday, but she weighed in later in the evening, declining to put her decision on hold. She also took more shots at the Trump administration’s legal stance.

The judge said the Justice Department’s arguments suffered from “serious infirmities.” She also described as “minimal” the agency’s chance of prevailing in its appeal.

Howell, also an Obama appointee, rejected the Justice Department’s position that turning the grand jury information over to the House risked its immediate release.

“A disclosure of grand jury material made under the October 25 Order that is found to be erroneous, can be clawed back,” the judge wrote, citing House procedures that dictate the information be kept confidential — at least for now.

Howell also dismissed Justice’s arguments that Pelosi has sidelined the Judiciary Committee in favor of other panels and issues related to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. “HJC plainly remains engaged,” she wrote.

