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Grand Jury Secrecy and Impeachment:
Implications of D.C. Circuit Ruling on the
Special Counsel's Report
March 20, 2020
Following the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation of Russian interference
in the 2016 election and related matters, the Attorney General released a public version of the Special
Counsel's report concerning the investigation, with redactions. Many of the redactions related to matters
occurring before the grand jury that had been convened in the investigation, as Rule 6(e) of the Federal
Rules of Criminal Procedure (Rule 6(e)) provides for the secrecy of grand jury proceedings unless an
exception applies. Certain Members of Congress were offered the opportunity to review a less redacted
version of the report, but the Attorney General has maintained that Rule 6(e) prohibited the disclosure of
grand jury information even to Congress.
In July 2019, the House Judiciary Committee filed an application in federal district court for an order
authorizing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release, among other things, the portions of the Special
Counsel's report that were redacted pursuant to Rule 6(e). The Committee argued that it needed the
redacted portions of the report to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment against the
President, and that authorizing DOJ to release of the grand jury material was thus permissible pursuant to
a Rule 6(e) exception for disclosures preliminarily to or in connection with a judicial proceeding. The
district court granted the Committee's request, and, on March 10, 2020, a panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit) affirmed that decision in a 2-1 ruling. The appellate court
ruling, should it stand, appears to establish a favorable framework for Congress to obtain grand jury
materials in the course of future impeachment investigations. This Sidebar accordingly provides an
overview of Rule 6(e) governing grand jury secrecy and the judicial proceeding exception, addresses
the appellate court decision regarding the Special Counsel's report, and briefly discusses some possible
implications of the decision.
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e)
To protect the innocent, encourage full disclosure by witnesses, and prevent those under scrutiny from
fleeing, among other things, Rule 6(e) establishes the secrecy of grand jury proceedings by setting out a
list of persons, including grand jurors and attorney[s] for the government, who must not disclose a
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
LSB10426
CRS L.eg Sidebar
Prepaed for Membeivs and
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