House Democrats can see secret Mueller grand jury testimony, appeals court rules

The House of Representatives is entitled to see redacted portions of the grand jury testimony collected during Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into President Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in a 2-to-1 decision that a lower federal district court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the Justice Department to disclose certain grand jury materials.

The majority opinion noted that the Mueller report “stopped short of making any ‘ultimate conclusions about the President’s conduct,’ ... in part to avoid preempting the House’s sole power of impeachment” and that the House Judiciary Committee had “established that it cannot ‘fairly and diligently’ make a final determination about the conduct described in both volumes of the Mueller Report ‘without the grand jury material referenced’ therein.”

The majority opinion was written by Judge Judith Rogers and joined by Judge Thomas Griffith. Judge Neomi Rao dissented, in part because the Senate already acquitted Trump after the House impeached him.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• This article originally appeared on HuffPost.