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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday canceled oral arguments next month on President Donald Trump’s proposal to prevent Congress from seeing material from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian political meddling being withheld. , which raises the possibility that the judges never pronounce the question.
The court granted a request from the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee, which requested a postponement in court documents as a new Congress will convene in the first week of January 2021 and Democratic President-elect Joe Biden will take office. next january. twenty.
Last year, the committee cited grand jury materials related to the Mueller report, which documented Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election to boost Trump’s candidacy. The Justice Department withheld the materials when the report was released.
In January, a newly formed committee, still led by Democrats after last month’s election, “will have to determine whether it wants to continue with the request for the grand jury materials that led to this case,” the committee said in court. . documents.
Acting United States Attorney General Jeffrey Wall, representing the Trump administration, did not object to the request.
Oral arguments were scheduled for December 2. Court action in a short warrant means the case may be dropped entirely once Biden takes office.
Mueller submitted his report to United States Attorney General William Barr in March 2019 after a 22-month investigation that detailed Russian hacking and propaganda efforts to aid Republican Trump and harm his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and documented multiple contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley. Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Edited by Howard Goller)
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