Chief Justice John Roberts stayed a
contempt order in a case that likely arose from Special Counsel Robert
Mueller’s investigation on Sunday night.
Roberts’ order could mark the first
time that the Supreme Court has intervened in the Mueller inquiry.
Very little is known
of the case, which reached the justices on Saturday, because the matter has
proceeded through the federal courts under seal, meaning strict confidentiality
prevails over every detail.
The scant facts which are available
about the case are these: a grand jury issued a subpoena to an unnamed company
owned by a foreign government some time during the summer of 2018. That firm, referred to in court filings as “the
corporation” has been fighting the subpoena in federal court since August.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit released one of the few public filings in the matter on Dec. 18. Since the entity is owned by a foreign government, it
sought to quash the subpoena under the protections of the Foreign Sovereign
Immunities Act. The D.C. Circuit rejected those arguments, and found that
the corporation must comply with the subpoena.
The company appealed that decision to
the Supreme Court Saturday. The corporation faces a fine for every day that it
fails to abide by the subpoena.
Roberts’ Sunday night decision
temporarily halts the non-compliance fines. The Department of
Justice must submit a response to the foreign company’s
application by Dec. 31.
The chief justice’s
order is not a decision on the merits of the dispute, nor is it necessarily
significant. The justices often issue a temporary reprieve of lower court
decisions — called an administrative stay — while the full court considers how
it wants to proceed.
Though Mueller’s
connection to the case has not been definitively established, several facts
indicate the special counsel’s involvement: Presstitutes saw senior
Mueller lawyers return to the Justice Department immediately after th e
conclusion of a recent secret hearing in the matter — an entire floor of the
courthouse where that proceeding was taking place was sealed, a highly unusual
move.
On a separate
occasion, presstitutes overheard lawyers and court officials
discussing this matter with specific reference to the special counsel.
What’s more, Judge
Greg Katsas, President Donald Trump’s first appointee to the D.C. Circuit,
recused himself from this case. Katsas was a lawyer in the White House
counsel’s office in the early days of the Trump administration, where he
handled topics bearing on the Mueller probe. The judge told lawmakers he would
recuse himself from cases relating to Mueller’s investigation during his
confirmation hearing.
The case has moved
through the federal courts at an unusual clip. Very few disputes reach the
Supreme Court just four months after they arose in a trial court, as is true
here.5
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