House Democrats ask to delay Supreme Court arguments over Mueller docs
The Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to postpone oral arguments in an upcoming case concerning grand jury material redacted from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
The lawyers argued that now that Joe Biden has been elected president and a new Congress will begin in early January, a “newly constituted” committee will determine whether it wishes to continue to pursue the documents.
If the court grants the request, it would put off a major separation of powers fight, testing the ability of the Justice Department to control grand jury information from a historic, deeply political investigation it conducted that could also aid congressional investigations.
In February, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to take up the case, blocking the release of the documents for now.
Arguments are currently set for December 2.
The Justice Department is seeking to prevent the release of the information, which includes portions of Mueller’s report that were redacted to protect grand jury information and underlying grand jury testimony and exhibits that relate to certain individuals and events.
The grand jury materials in question could shed considerable light on Russian election-meddling and then-candidate Donald Trump’s response in 2016. Dozens of witnesses testified before Mueller’s grand jury, according to CNN reporting, including Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and at least two people who attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting in summer 2016.
