Peter1469
04-12-2019, 04:27 AM
Appeals court in DC rules judges cannot create exceptions to grand jury secrecy rules (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/appeals-court-in-dc-rules-judges-may-not-create-exceptions-to-grand-jury-secrecy-rules/2019/04/05/b72053ae-57b6-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html?utm_term=.6cb8c107df94)
Take note re: Mueller report. This is why at least one Dem representative tried to advance impeachment because that would allow most of the report's release.
The federal appeals court in Washington on Friday ruled that grand-jury testimony and information may be disclosed only to prosecutors, defendants and other grand juries and that judges may not carve out exceptions to the secrecy already mandated by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
The split decision, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, could lead to further confusion over the public release of the report written by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III documenting his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as related investigative materials.
“Every page of the ‘confidential report’ ” by Mueller, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement Thursday, “was marked ‘May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R Crim. P. 6(e)’ — a law that protects confidential grand jury information — and therefore could not be publicly released.”
But the court’s ruling also affirmed that grand-jury materials could be shared with the House of Representatives under an exception for “judicial proceedings,” citing a 1974 ruling by U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica during the investigation of President Richard M. Nixon that the House “in this setting acts simply as another grand jury.”
Take note re: Mueller report. This is why at least one Dem representative tried to advance impeachment because that would allow most of the report's release.
The federal appeals court in Washington on Friday ruled that grand-jury testimony and information may be disclosed only to prosecutors, defendants and other grand juries and that judges may not carve out exceptions to the secrecy already mandated by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
The split decision, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, could lead to further confusion over the public release of the report written by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III documenting his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as related investigative materials.
“Every page of the ‘confidential report’ ” by Mueller, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement Thursday, “was marked ‘May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R Crim. P. 6(e)’ — a law that protects confidential grand jury information — and therefore could not be publicly released.”
But the court’s ruling also affirmed that grand-jury materials could be shared with the House of Representatives under an exception for “judicial proceedings,” citing a 1974 ruling by U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica during the investigation of President Richard M. Nixon that the House “in this setting acts simply as another grand jury.”