The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a significant blow to House Democrats’ efforts to have access to secret grand jury material from Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying it would decide next term whether Congress is authorized to see the material.
The decision to hear the case next fall means the House Judiciary Committee cannot have access to the material before the election. A lower court ruled this spring that the committee was entitled to see the previously withheld material from Mueller’s probe, which also investigated whether President Trump obstructed the special counsel’s work.
It is unlikely there could be a Supreme Court decision even before the end of the current congressional term in January.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco had told the Supreme Court it should decide for itself the “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 need for the information, Francisco wrote in a brief to the court.
Bamsterman