House Democrats Win Access to Unredacted Version of Mueller’s Russia Report
TRANSPARENCY
A federal appeals court panel has granted House Democrats permission to see information that was redacted or deleted from the public version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report on Russian election interference. In a 2-1 ruling on Monday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision in favor of the House’s ability to see the secret grand jury information. The ruling applies to any blacked-out words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and entire pages, as well as underlying interviews and memos cited, Politico reported. However, the ruling is likely to be challenged, delaying any immediate impacts. Judge Judith Rogers and Judge Thomas Griffith rejected the Justice Department’s argument that impeachment is not the kind of court case where grand jury materials are usually available. They said courts should not “micromanage” the House’s need for information in the context of an impeachment probe. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee who dissented, said a court could order that grand jury material be unredacted but could not order the Justice Department to hand it over to Congress.
Although President Trump was acquitted of unrelated articles of impeachment earlier this year, Democrats reportedly said in their legal filings that they could still consider new articles of impeachment. Monday’s ruling comes after Trump has made repeated claims that his administration could block Congress from talking to witnesses and getting information as part of any impeachment probe.