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Congressional Dems want access to the grand jury materials AG Barr is busy redacting from Mueller's report, but they'll likely to face a dilemma--there's better legal authority to get them in the context of impeachment, rather than traditional oversight. yahoo.com/news/in-pursui…
My piece owes a lot to this CRS report, which was notably published just this January, about Congress's occasional collisions with the rules providing for grand jury secrecy. fas.org/sgp/crs/secrec…
In a world where DOJ policy forbids prosecutors from seeking indictments against a sitting president from a grand jury, it's only logical that the fruits of the grand jury's investigation should have an outlet somewhere.
And congress is the most obvious outlet. But the grand jury secrecy rule (FRCP 6(e)) doesn't expressly provide for congress to have access to grand jury materials. The rule does however have an exception for a court authorize disclosure in connection with a judicial proceeding.
And while courts have generally recognized an impeachment inquiry as preliminary to a quasi-judicial proceeding (the Senate trial) that satisfies the exception in 6(e), they've generally rejected the idea that congressional oversight and investigations satisfy the exception.
Thank you, reader, for this opportunity to nerd out about grand jury rules and cause trouble at the same time.
Nadler’s statement in response to Barr’s letter asks the AG to join him in seeking a court order to transmit Mueller’s grand jury material to Congress. 
