Robert Mueller’s mystery sealed indictment
Something big is happening in the District of Columbia Circuit. This morning, there were hearings in the sealed grand jury matter. Who is being heard and about what is a mystery. This morning, Zoe Tillman, a reporter for Buzzfeed.com, tweeted: “The DC Circuit is about to hear arguments in the sealed grand jury matter. They’ve sealed not only the courtroom, but the whole floor, so we’ve been moved away. Haven’t recognized anyone going in earlier as being connected to Mueller’s office, now we won’t be able to see.”
Tillman also noted that the underlying grand jury matter had been filed in August, and then in early October, a judgment was entered. Other than that, the entire docket is sealed. Rachel Maddow had also reported one other interesting tidbit. Judge Greg Katsas, underwent a bizarre confirmation hearing and refused to discuss anything about the nature of his prior legal work for Donald Trump in the Trump-Russia investigation and promised to recuse himself from any cases related in any way to the investigation.
Sure enough, he is the only judge to recuse himself in the en banc panel hearings in this sealed matter. That recusal is causing many legal experts to believe that the sealed matter is related to the Special Counsel investigation, and Politico has previously reported as much.
The intrigue continues, with some having speculated that this is a sealed indictment that perhaps involves “President” Donald Trump or one of his family members. We still don’t know who is the subject of this very secretive matter. But like all the other news this week, it likely does not bode well for Trump.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.