WASHINGTON - A federal judge Friday ordered the Justice Department to release certain grand jury materials from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to the House Judiciary Committee amid its impeachment inquiry. The materials must be disclosed by Wednesday.
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The Judiciary Committee had filed suit in July seeking a court order for the release of certain redacted portions of Mueller’s 448-page final report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as grand jury materials cited or referenced by the report. The ruling said the House panel may also come back to court to seek additional material if needed.
In a 75-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of Washington cited a 1974 federal appeals court decision in Haldeman v. Sirica that upheld that congressional impeachment proceedings are excepted from normal grand jury secrecy rules.
"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, Howell wrote.
She found that a House impeachment investigation and Senate trial qualify under a grand jury material exemption that permits prosecutors to share information "preliminary to or in connection with a judicial proceeding."
At a hearing this month, Howell called "extreme" the arguments presented by Trump administration lawyers who opposed the House request for Mueller grand jury materials, which predated Congress' current impeachment inquiry surrounding the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine.
Justice Department attorneys had said that despite legal rulings during the impeachment inquiry into President Richard M. Nixon, in hindsight courts in 1974 should not have given Congress materials from the Watergate grand jury.
They said the Haldeman decision relied on an "ambiguous" interpretation of law that no longer is valid. The case was brought by Nixon's former chief of staff, who was challenging his prosecution spun off from the legal case against Nixon for the burglary - and subsequent coverup - of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex. Nixon resigned as the 37th president before he was formally impeached.
Howell is a 2010 appointee of President Barack Obama.
The House lawsuit preceded Congress' impeachment inquiry that began after the disclosure of Trump's request to Ukrainian government officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 campaign rival, and Biden's son Hunter Biden.
The impeachment inquiry on the Ukrainian interactions focuses on an intelligence community whistleblower's complaint.
House General Counsel Douglas Letter, in court before Howell had said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in announcing the official impeachment inquiry, did not limit it to Ukraine but included an “umbrella” of pending investigations by six House committees.