Thread by @AdamWagner1

I am not a criminal lawyer so perhaps I am missing something. How would a factual civil service report about events the police is investigating "prejudice" their investigation?

It is absolutely normal for concerns to be raised about prejudice to a criminal *trial*. That is due to a concern that the jury will be influenced by press coverage and not be sufficiently objective (so we have special rules about jury trials and press coverage).

But the police don't, as far as I am aware, ask journalists not to report on ongoing *investigations* and often media will report on the factual circumstances surrounding a police investigation, then clam up once a charge has been brought.

I suppose the police might argue that there is a possibility down the line of a jury trial e.g. if. there are misconduct in public office charges, but it still seems odd to say that Sue Gray's findings would at this very early stage "prejudice" anything.

And don't forget that most if not all of the offences at issue here (the coronavirus regulations offences) are "summary only" offences, so no possibility of a jury trial. So why suppress parts of this report which itself will only refer those issues?

Here's one possibility

https://twitter.com/JonathanHaynes/status/1486982919147212801?s=20&t=R-pSs5ErwRKoZd2PT75kUw

Another possibility is that arrests have been or are about to be made, in which case "proceedings" have begun under the Contempt of Court Act?

I suppose we will see what the story is - I wouldn't assume a "cover up" but it is possible (a) that police have evidence of more serious offences than under coronavirus regulations, (b) they are being super cautious in the context of a sensitive politicised investigation

Another fair point

https://twitter.com/jgoss85/status/1486982191787782146?s=20&t=R-pSs5ErwRKoZd2PT75kUw

The key point here is that there are potentially conflicting imperatives for the public to understand what has happened at the heart of government (transparency better) and the police to investigate criminal offences (transparency at this stage can make their job more difficult)

Arguably all of this would have been avoided if police had done the sensible thing and begun investigating in December when the allegations emerged. Now we are in public accountability limbo and there is a messy dynamic between the internal Gray report and police investigation

Another point

https://twitter.com/hotdiggettydog/status/1486996285878063106?s=20&t=idJACGLOePFxCT60crfVyw