![]() Ken Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton as an independent counsel, has argued that grand jury secrecy should be “scrupulously maintained” even if Barr chooses to release as much other information as possible.īut there are also legal arguments that the standard should not be as strict in this circumstance. The legal community is divided on the question of how much the usual rules of grand jury secrecy should apply in the Mueller report. In the letter to Congress, Barr said that he would remove information related to grand jury proceedings and other investigations, although he also promised to “release as much of the Special Counsel’s report” as he can. If Barr interprets the rule strictly, that could mean a substantial portion of the report is redacted. Under rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, testimony and other information considered by grand juries is supposed to remain confidential. One major question is whether information from the more than 2,800 grand jury subpoenas issued by Mueller’s investigators should be shared with the public. The fact is, he can give certain information to Congress under seal.” What grand jury information will be redacted? “The portrayal that this is some type of rogue conduct by the Attorney General is rather fallacious. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who has previously represented Barr, says the attorney general is acting within his bounds in redacting information from the report. “They’re trying to hide it because they know that this summary that Barr released in this four-page letter was just a part of a flimsy excuse to give Trump cover to go argue that he’s been exonerated.”īut other lawyers have argued that Barr is right to follow typical procedures within the Justice Department for publicly releasing information about an investigation. “There’s absolutely no excuse for this,” Akerman said. However, he argues that all information should be provided to the House Judiciary Committee unredacted. ![]() Nick Akerman, a former Watergate prosecutor, told TIME that some of the information in the report should be redacted because of national security concerns or because it relates to ongoing investigations, but he believes other information is being excluded improperly. It’s unclear what information having to do with Trump will be redacted from the report. In his letter to Congress in March, Barr said he was reviewing Mueller’s report to redact information in four categories, including grand jury material, material that could compromise sensitive intelligence sources or methods, information that could affect other ongoing investigations and information that could infringe on the privacy and reputation of “peripheral third parties.” What has Attorney General William Barr said he will redact?
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