MEDIA/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A group advocating for journalists and First Amendment rights is asking a judge to clear away one of the key obstacles the Justice Department is citing as grounds for withholding portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report: the presence of information gathered through the secret actions of a grand jury. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a petition Monday with Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, asking her to rule that officials need not withhold from the Congress — or the public — any grand jury material in Mueller’s report on his probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The move comes as Attorney General William Barr has pledged to prepare a version of the report for public release by mid-April. However, that pledge came with several caveats, including that the department would have to excise grand jury-related testimony and evidence. Barr even noted in one letter that it could be a criminal offense for officials to release information covered by grand jury secrecy. The new petition amounts to a pre-emptive step to take the grand-jury concern off the table by having Howell rule that the interests of public and Congress in seeing the information outweigh any other concerns.”
–Josh Gerstein, “Press group asks judge to lift grand jury secrecy in Mueller report,” Politico, April 1, 2019 12:48 pm