The Supreme Court on Thursday denied House Democrats access to the grand jury testimony collected by former special counsel Robert Mueller, keeping the documents out of Congress’ hands until after the November presidential election.
Mueller’s final report did not exonerate the president on the question of whether he obstructed justice by trying to interfere with or slow-roll the probe. House and Senate Democrats had hoped to get their hands on the grand jury testimony before the November elections.
The announcement came after the president had just concluded brief remarks in the White House briefing room about the latest jobs numbers, which showed a declining unemployment rate as states re-open their economies amid the spreading-again coronavirus.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Democrats must now focus on defeating the president in November.
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“I am disappointed by the Court’s decision to prolong this case further, but I am confident we will prevail. In every administration before this one, [the Department of Justice] has cooperated with the Judiciary Committee’s requests for grand jury materials relating to investigations of impeachable offenses. Attorney General Barr broke from that practice, and DOJ’s newly invented arguments against disclosure have failed at every level,” the New York Democrat said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, President Trump and Attorney General Barr are continuing to try to run out the clock on any and all accountability. While I am confident their legal arguments will fail,” he added, “it is now all the more important for the American people to hold the President accountable at the ballot box in November.”
