Judge moves forward with court battle to publicly expose the grand jury materials in the Robert Mueller report
Now that the polls show most Americans don’t believe Attorney General William Barr’s four page summary of the Robert Mueller report was an honest one, Barr is insisting that his summary wasn’t actually a “summary.” Now he wants a do-over, and he’s talking about releasing a longer summary which conveniently excludes, among other things, Mueller’s grand jury material. But the courts could soon rule otherwise.
It’s widely suspected that Robert Mueller laid out the grand jury proceedings in his report, in order to make a detailed case to Congress and the public about the Trump regime’s collusion and obstruction. Grand jury materials aren’t normally made public, but former Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski set a precedent for such materials being made public in an investigation into a sitting president.
Accordingly, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press says it’s already going to court, seeking the public release of all grand jury materials that are in any way referenced in the Mueller report. Further, Federal Judge Beryl Howell has set a swift April 12th filing date for this court battle to move forward. This effort may end up dovetailing with the subpoena battle over the Mueller report that House Democrats are about to put into play.
When the House Democrats begin firing off their Mueller report subpoena tsunami on Wednesday, William Barr will likely try to argue that he can’t legally turn over the grand jury materials contained in the Mueller report. But if the judge rules that these materials must be publicly released, this would overrule Barr’s position.
