Latest in Mueller Investigation
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, in a lawsuit brought by Buzzfeed News and the digital privacy watchdog EPIC, rebuked Attorney General William Barr’s handling of the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
On Feb. 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed the House Judiciary Committee's lawsuit to compel the testimony of former White House Counsel Don McGahn. Writing on behalf of the court, Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote, "The Department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of McGahn, responds that Article III of the Constitution forbids federal courts from resolving this kind of interbranch information dispute. We agree and dismiss this case." The opinion is available here and below.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson had a particularly difficult job on Thursday.
In its suit to obtain Mueller investigation grand jury materials, the House of Representatives has highlighted what it argues is a contradiction that "cannot be reconciled" between the Justice Department's position on impeachment and that expressed by President Trump's lawyers in his impeachment trial before the Senate. While the department has argued that a Senate impeachment trial is not a "judicial proceeding," the president's attorneys referred to the Senate as a "court" in the impeachment proceedings.
Attorney General Bill Barr, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham, FBI Director Christopher Wray and President Donald Trump have each released statements about the release of the Justice Department's inspector general's report into the Russia investigation. Those statements are available below.
On Monday, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General released a report on its review of the four FISA applications and other aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation, which explored any possible coordination or connection between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election. The document is available here and below.
Somewhat lackluster attention to Roger Stone’s trial raises the question of who still cares about the Mueller investigation.
In the D.C. District Court, the House Judiciary Committee filed a brief in support of their application for a judge to release certain grand jury materials relevant to the Russia investigation. The brief argues that the grand jury materials are critical to developing a full understanding of the events described in the Mueller Report and are particularly crucial to determine whether President Trump provided false statements to Mueller’s office in his written answers to the special counsel’s questions.
On Sept. 17, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski testified before the House Judiciary Committee in an impeachment investigation hearing titled “Presidential Obstruction of Justice and Abuse of Power.” He had been subpoenaed by the committee to testify, along with Rick Dearborn (former White House deputy chief of staff) and Rob Porter (former White House staff secretary).
The inspector general of the United States Department of Justice says that a witness to gross misconduct by the president of the United States has a duty to keep his mouth shut.