Admin appeals ruling

Trump admin appeals ruling on Mueller grand jury material

A judge ruled Friday that the DOJ had to give the House Judiciary Committee grand jury materials related to the Mueller report.

By JOSH GERSTEIN

The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s ruling requiring the Justice Department to give the House Judiciary Committee grand jury materials related to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The decision Friday from Chief Judge Beryl Howell of U.S. District Court in Washington effectively put the onus on the Justice Department to persuade the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals or, perhaps, the Supreme Court, to reverse her ruling.

However, the court battle could also put new pressure on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to clarify whether she still considers issues related to Mueller’s report a viable part of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Justice Department attorneys noted in a court filing related to the appeal Monday that at the moment the impeachment effort seems primarily centered on allegations that Trump sought to trade hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Ukraine in exchange for officials in Kyiv announcing an investigation that could be politically damaging to one of Trump’s political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The Justice Department’s detailed grounds for its appeal will be filed with the D.C. Circuit, but a motion submitted to Howell Monday seeking a stay of her decision sought to use statements by Pelosi to quarrel with Howell’s claim Friday that the Mueller grand jury materials bear on events “central to the impeachment inquiry.”

“The Speaker has announced that the House impeachment inquiry will focus narrowly on the whistleblower complaint and issues surrounding Ukraine,” DOJ lawyer Elizabeth Shapiro wrote. The Justice Department brief cites a Washington Post article about Pelosi’s statement and, in an unusual move, quotes an assessment by the authors of the story that the Judiciary Committee and its chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y), have been “at least temporarily relegated to the wings.”

Howell’s ruling last week granted the Judiciary Committee access to portions of Mueller’s final report that were redacted as grand jury secrets. She also said the House panel is entitled to underlying grand jury information cited in the report. Her ruling rejected arguments from Trump and White House counsel Pat Cipollone that the ongoing impeachment inquiries were invalid because there was no formal House vote to authorize them. She also said legal precedents dictate that impeachment is a judicial proceeding that falls within a legal provision permitting disclosure of grand jury information that would ordinarily would be secret.

Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, gave the Justice Department until Wednesday to turn over the requested records. She gave Democrats until noon on Tuesday to respond to the Justice Department. House lawyers have indicated they plan to oppose any extension of the DOJ’s Wednesday deadline.

Justice Department lawyers argued that allowing Howell’s decision to take effect would essentially deprive the administration of the ability to present its “strong arguments” that her ruling was mistaken.

“A stay is warranted because, without a stay, the Department will be irreparably harmed,” Shapiro wrote. “Once the information is disclosed, it cannot be recalled, and the confidentiality of the grand jury information will be lost for all time — particularly if Petitioner United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary … decides to publicize the now-secret grand jury materials, which it has asserted the power to do through a simple majority vote.”

If Howell denies the stay motion, the Justice Department will likely make a near-identical request to the D.C. Circuit. It commonly grants such motions, at least briefly, so it can consider how to proceed.

The appeal will be assigned to a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit, which has seven Democratic appointees and four GOP appointees on its active bench. The House committee or the Justice Department could also seek review by the full bench of the D.C. Circuit or the Supreme Court.