The federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., that special counsel Robert Mueller was using for his investigation is still continuing to work "robustly" even after Mueller submitted his final report about his probe to the Justice Department, a prosecutor said at a court hearing Wednesday.
That revelation means that even as Mueller closes up the special counsel's shop after two years of work, there remains a chance that that the grand jury he had used will issue further indictments.
The same grand jury in January indicted President Donald Trump's longtime advisor and ally Roger Stone on multiple charges. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington is now responsible for prosecuting Stone.
That office, and potentially other Justice Department prosecutors, would be handling presentation of evidence to the grand jury and making subpoena requests in any other cases the grand jury continues to work on.
Wednesday's hearing in Washington before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell dealt with a motion filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
That journalism advocacy group wants to have unsealed details of a case in which the grand jury, acting at Mueller's request, subpoenaed information last year from an unidentified foreign-owned company.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which has long sought those details, now is arguing there is even less reason for secrecy because Mueller has finished his investigation.
The mysterious foreign-owned company, whose refusal to comply with the subpoena has left it owing contempt-of-court penalties believed to be in excess of $2 million, on Monday saw the Supreme Court reject its request to hear an appeal of lower court rulings upholding the demand for documents.
Howell on Wednesday asked federal prosecutor David Goodhand if the grand jury had finished its investigation.
"No," Goodhand answered. "I can say it's continuing robustly."
Federal grand juries work in secret. Their proceedings are not open to the public, and as a rule a grand jury's actions only come to light when it issues charges in a case in the form of an indictment.
Peter Carr, spokesman for the special counsel's office, declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington had no immediate comment.
Mueller, who was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and related issues, on Friday turned in his final report to Attorney General William Barr. The final report has not been publicly released.
On Sunday, Barr, in a letter to top members of Congress, said that Mueller's probe did not find sufficient evidence to establish that Trump obstructed justice in connection with the investigation, or that Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
Barr also said that Mueller had not obtained any new indictments since that of Stone's. There had been speculation that the special counsel would obtain sealed indictments from the grand jury that would later be revealed.
Trump claimed the report was a "full exoneration" — but it was not.
Barr, in his letter, directly quoted Mueller as saying that, "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
Mueller previously had used the grand jury to obtain investigate and bring charges against multiple people connected to Trump, including Stone, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign and inaugural official Rick Gates and the president's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington is now handling the remaining work to be done in those and other cases Mueller had lodged.
At Wednesday's hearing, attorneys for the unidentified foreign company told Howell the firm "had no interest" in being identified to the public.
Howell did not make a decision Wednesday on the motion by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to unseal details about the subpoena, but said she will consider it.
from Top News & Analysis https://ift.tt/2OswIJivia IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment