A press freedom group requested on Monday that judge authorize the release of the grand jury materials in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
The grand jury materials are just one of several categories of information in Mueller’s report Attorney General Bill Barr has said he will withhold when he releases a public version of the report sometime in mid-April.
While typically under the law, grand jury materials are kept confidential, there is also a legal process for seeking a judge’s OK to release them. Barr so far has not given any public indication that he plans to pursue that option, despite House Democrats’ request that he work with them to do so.
In its filing Monday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press requested the court’s authorization for the release of all grand jury materials “cited, quoted, or referenced” in Mueller’s report. It comes on the heels of a March 27 request by the group under the Freedom of Information Act that the Justice Department release the full report.
“The public’s need for access to the Special Counsel’s Report, to the greatest extent possible, unquestionably outweighs the ordinary interests that grand jury secrecy is designed to uphold,” the group’s Monday court filing said.
Read the court document below:
