Nicolas Bourtin, managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell’s Criminal Defense and Investigations Group, Alex Willscher, Deputy Managing Partner of the Group, and associate Vincent Recca authored an article for Law360 on a Supreme Court case that stems from the U.S. House of Representatives’ subpoena for grand jury records from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The case, U.S. Department of Justice v. House Committee on the Judiciary, could put an end to courts’ inherent, supervisory ability to make exceptions to grand jury secrecy requirements outside of those listed in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e).
The authors write that “the end of inherent authority would likely also mean an end to special nondisclosure orders from courts to grand jury witnesses, and an end to the release of grand jury materials in cases in which (1) the government and the impacted party both seek disclosure; (2) the government seeks disclosure to nonenumerated parties in order to advance law enforcement investigations; and (3) the grand jury materials are of significant historical import.”