WASHINGTON _ Congressional Democrats weighing President Donald Trump's impeachment will have to wait to see a fuller version of Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its accompanying grand jury materials.
Trump administration lawyers won a postponement of a court-ordered Oct. 30 deadline for handing over the records, which the House Judiciary Committee has sought since shortly after the special counsel testified before Congress in July.
A U.S. appeals court in Washington granted the Justice Department's request for a delay while the government pursues a longer pause pending the outcome of an appeal of chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell's Oct. 25 ruling. The administration lodged similar requests in both courts after stating its intention to appeal Howell's ruling in court papers filed Monday.
In her 75-page decision, Howell rejected arguments that the House Democrats weren't entitled to invade grand jury secrecy because they weren't engaged in a proper judicial proceeding.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Sept. 24 that her chamber would undertake an impeachment inquiry, after it received a whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump had tied $391 million in Ukrainian aid already approved by Congress to that nation's willingness to investigate his presidential rival Joe Biden and Biden's son Hunter for possible corruption in Ukraine. The inquiry is focused on Ukraine but will inevitably include events that Mueller, who stepped down in May, investigated in his 22-month probe.
Recognizing the inquiry as a necessary precursor to full-blown proceedings, the judge wrote, "Impeachment based on anything less than all relevant evidence would compromise the public's faith in the process."
The Judiciary Committee opposed the Justice Department's request for a stay pending resolution of the appeal, calling the grand jury papers "essential to its urgent impeachment inquiry." But it told both the district and appeals courts it would consent to a seven-day "administrative stay" allowing the court more time to consider the government's request for longer-term relief.
