• Justice Dept. asked justices to temporarily halt lower-court order, saying executive branch would suffer irreparable harm if the evidence is disclosed.
“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to block Congress from seeing grand jury secrets gathered in the Russia investigation by Mueller, saying the executive branch would suffer irreparable harm if lawmakers see the evidence,” writes Charlie Savage at the New York Times.
In a 35-page filing, Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general, asked the justices to halt an order by a federal appeals court that imposed a May 11 deadline on the Justice Department to turn over the evidence to the House Judiciary Committee. He said the Justice Department should first get a chance to fully litigate an appeal of the ruling before the Supreme Court.
“The government will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay. Once the government discloses the secret grand-jury records, their secrecy will irrevocably be lost,” Mr. Francisco wrote, adding, “That is particularly so when, as here, they are disclosed to a congressional committee and its staff.”
Nothing could stop House Democrats, he added, from publicly releasing the evidence Mr. Mueller gathered by a simple-majority vote in the Judiciary Committee.
READ MORE:
Supreme Court Is Asked to Block House From Seeing Mueller’s Grand Jury Secrets
[May 7, 2020, 1:59 p.m. ET]
