U.S. judge balks at Justice Dept. bid to deny House access to Mueller grand jury materials
Source: Washington Post
Justice Department lawyers urged a federal judge Tuesday to deny a House Judiciary Committee request for grand-jury materials from former special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation, arguing 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. Wow, okay, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington responded, sounding unpersuaded. As I said, the department is taking extraordinary positions in this case.
Howell called the stance one of several extreme arguments presented by Trump administration lawyers in opposing the House request for Mueller grand-jury materials, part of a widening impeachment investigation of President Trump. Over a two-hour hearing, Howell voiced strong skepticism of Justice Department arguments against granting the House petition, presented in a lawsuit that predated Congresss current impeachment inquiry surrounding the Trump administrations dealings with Ukraine.
Howell, a 2010 Barack Obama appointee, pressed veteran Justice Department civil division litigator Elizabeth J. Shapiro on whether the department now viewed as wrongly decided a landmark ruling by then-Chief U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica that transferred a sealed report and grand-jury evidence to House investigators, who prepared Nixons articles of impeachment.
The grand-jury materials, colloquially known as the Sirica road map, gave Congress evidence in 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. If that same case were heard today, a different result would obtain, Shapiro said, saying Sirica relied on an ambiguous interpretation of law that no longer is valid.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-balks-at-justice-dept-bid-to-deny-house-access-to-mueller-grand-jury-materials/2019/10/08/bd0de590-e9c6-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html
DeminPennswoods
(15,240 posts)ridiculous positions.