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Supreme Court drops hearing for Mueller grand jury documents

The Justice Department said that though it was prepared for the December 2 hearing, it would not fight the House judiciary's request to drop it from the Supreme Court calendar. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI
The Justice Department said that though it was prepared for the December 2 hearing, it would not fight the House judiciary's request to drop it from the Supreme Court calendar. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Friday dropped a hearing from its calendar to hear arguments in a case in which House Democrats sought to obtain secret grand jury material gathered by former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators.

Lawyers for the House judiciary committee had asked for a delay for the Dec. 2 hearing until after the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. The Justice Department said it was prepared to proceed with the hearing but said it would accept the Supreme Court's decision.

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In a motion to the high court on Tuesday, House counsel Doug Letter said that with the installation of a new Democratic president and new members of Congress, the "newly constituted" judiciary committee will likely want to evaluate whether to proceed with the case.

"Under the circumstances, the committee respectfully requests that the Court remove this case from the December 2020 argument calendar," Letter's motion read. "The committee believes that postponing oral argument would be in the interest of the parties and the court and may conserve judicial resources."

The judiciary committee has been fighting for the redacted grand jury materials since summer 2019 as part of its investigation into Russian electoral interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion with the Trump campaign.

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The Justice Department argued earlier this year that the committee needs a court order to see the materials -- and even with that, without a judicial proceeding, they could only see redacted versions of the documents. An appellate court disagreed.

In February, the Supreme Court took up the case and temporarily blocked the released of the documents as the case played out in the court.

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