The Justice Department pushed back against a federal judge who said the government must quickly hand over secret grand jury materials from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The DOJ asked the U.S District Court in Washington, D.C., on Monday for a stay in handing the materials to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee for its impeachment investigation, pending the DOJ’s appeal of the court’s decision.

“Once the information is disclosed, it cannot be recalled, and the confidentiality of the grand jury information will be lost for all time,” the department argued, especially if the committee “decides to publicize the now-secret grand jury materials, which it has asserted the power to do through a simple majority vote.”

Last Friday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell ordered the DOJ to give House impeachment investigators access to the redacted portions of Mueller’s 448-page report by Wednesday.

Mueller's report, which was released in April, concluded that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election through a series of cyberattacks and social media disinformation campaigns, but the special counsel did not establish any criminal collusion between the Kremlin and any member of the Trump campaign.

