Supreme Court stops House Democrats from seeing secret Mueller material for now

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped House Democrats for now from seeing secret grand jury material from Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether President Trump obstructed the special counsel’s work.

The court, without noted dissent, agreed to a request from the Justice Department to put on hold a lower court’s decision granting the House Judiciary Committee some previously undisclosed material from Mueller’s probe.

The action could mean that Congress will not receive the full Mueller report — without redactions of certain grand jury material — until after the November election, or perhaps not even during lawmakers’ current term, which ends Jan. 3.

As is customary, the short order gave no reason for granting the administration’s request to stay the decision reached by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The justices set a June 1 deadline for the administration to explain why the court should accept the case for full review.

If the justices do not accept the case, the lower court’s ruling would go into effect and House Democrats would gain access to the additional evidence. But if the court agrees with the request, a hearing would not be scheduled until the fall absent special action.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco had told the Supreme Court it should withhold the sensitive information until it could consider for itself “significant separation of powers” issues raised in the case. Despite the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Congress has no immediate need for the information, Francisco wrote in a brief to the court.

“The House already has impeached the president, the Senate already has acquitted him, and neither [the committee] nor the House has provided any indication that a second impeachment is imminent,” Francisco wrote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-for-now-stops-house-democrats-from-seeing-secret-mueller-material/2020/05/20/091ac208-9ad6-11ea-a282-386f56d579e6_story.html