Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Release of Unredacted Mueller Report
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked the release of blacked out portions of the report prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller at the conclusion of his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The court’s order, concerning a request by the House Judiciary Committee for grand jury materials that the Justice Department had redacted from the report provided to Congress, could mean that the full report will not be made available before the 2020 election.
The order gave no rationale for the decision.
It gives the Justice Department until June 1 to file a formal appeal of a lower court ruling requiring the administration to hand over the materials the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee initially requested as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
If a petition for Supreme Court review isn’t filed by that time, the stay will be lifted, the justices said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the ruling saying, “The House’s long-standing right to obtain grand jury information pursuant to the House’s impeachment power has now been upheld by the lower courts twice. These rulings are supported by decades of precedent and should be permitted to proceed.
“The Justice Department’s continued delay is part of a pattern of the administration hiding the truth from the public. The American people deserve the truth,” she said.
