On October 25, 2019, Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell issued a 75-page memorandum opinion in In re Application of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, for an Order Authorizing the Release of Certain Grand Jury Materials, Grand Jury Action No. 19-48 (BAH), reported at 414 F. Supp. 3d 129.
The House Judiciary Committee had applied under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) for grand-jury material redacted from Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report. Howell granted the application. She held that a Senate impeachment trial is a “judicial proceeding” under Rule 6(e), that the Committee’s work was preliminarily to such a proceeding, and that the Committee had shown a particularized need. The Department of Justice had opposed disclosure.
That is a disclosure order. It is not a finding that Donald Trump committed a crime. It is not a House vote to impeach. It is the chief judge of D.D.C. deciding a sealed-materials fight on a Mueller grand jury she supervised as chief judge. Do not invent a personal alliance with Mueller.