cduggles
Bluelight Crew
This post covers two topics:
1. How a grand jury works, and
2. Why it matters that Bob Mueller impaneled one.
Everything you wanted to know about grand juries.
This is the best article I found about the function of a grand jury. It's very well written. Highlights below:
Bob Mueller Is Using a Grand Jury. Here’s What It Means
* Only a grand jury can issue an indictment, which is the only way that someone can be charged with committing a felony pursuant to the U.S. Constitution.
* A grand jury, which consists of 16 to 23 people, is an important tool that allows prosecutors to issue subpoenas that require people to produce documents and other evidence.
* Subpoenas can also be used to compel people to testify under oath before the grand jury.
* The work that grand juries do is secret, which means that grand jurors—who are ordinary citizens chosen at random and vetted by the federal district court—cannot share what is happening before the grand jury.
* Federal rules also prevent prosecutors from disclosing what happens before the grand jury.
* [The] rules permit witnesses to disclose what happened, and people who receive grand jury subpoenas are usually not prohibited from disclosing their contents.
* [W]e will likely continue to hear media reports about witnesses and documents sought by Mueller and his team...
* When a witness testifies under oath before the grand jury, no one else is permitted to be present other than the prosecutor and the grand jurors. The witness is not even allowed to have a lawyer present, and the normal rules of evidence that limit questioning in a trial do not apply.
* Alternatively, when witnesses receive a grand jury subpoena, their lawyer often asks the prosecutor to agree to permit the witness to be interviewed by the prosecutor and an FBI agent with the lawyer present. The FBI agent’s presence would make it a crime to lie during the interview—creating the risk of Trump or one of his associates committing a crime through their words—but the lawyer would be present and could assist the witness.
Mueller has already hired 16 prosecutors—some of the most accomplished investigators ever assembled on one team.
These are people with deep skills and experience in prosecuting cases on money laundering, campaign finance violations and foreign bribery, as well as a sophisticated understanding of how to handle sprawling, complex investigations like this one.
If any crimes were committed, they’re likely to find out.
------------------------
How important is it that Mueller has formed a grand jury?
This is the best article I found to explain the importance of impaneling the grand jury. Highlights below!!
How important is it that Mueller has formed a grand jury? I asked 20 legal experts
Jens David Ohlin, law professor, Cornell University
This suggests that Mueller's investigation isn't an investigate-and-file-a-report-with-Congress type of deal — it's an investigate-and-indict effort.
Jed Shugerman, law professor, Fordham University
[N]ow Mueller has impaneled a special grand jury in DC focused on Russia, and that commitment means that
1) Mueller expects this new grand jury to be doing a lot of special work, and
2) it will be reviewing classified material.
A special grand jury devoted to a single investigation is very rare.
Perhaps a clearer signal of Mueller's case is his recent hire of Greg Andres, a former prosecutor specializing in foreign bribery and fraud. Andres would not leave his law firm if he did not expect to be very busy and very central to this case.
Victoria Nourse, law professor, Georgetown University
My personal speculation is that Mueller would not have done this if he did not have significant evidence. Mueller is a class act. I doubt he would risk his reputation, even among a few dozen people, without something that he already knows is potentially very serious.
Julie O’Sullivan, law professor, Georgetown University
One investigates potential white-collar crimes through grand juries. Mueller will call before the grand jury everyone who has had any possible involvement in the alleged collusion and the alleged obstruction, and get them on the record under oath.
They cannot decline to testify unless they take the Fifth [that is, invoke the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which says that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself"], and only then if they have a valid argument that their testimony may incriminate them.
Any decent white-collar lawyer will urge clients to take the Fifth, but a lot of politicians and businesspeople think they cannot do so without unacceptable collateral employment or reputational consequences, and so they testify. If they are smart, they will not lie. (Martha Stewart and Scooter Libby should serve as cautionary examples.)
I hope you found this interesting!
1. How a grand jury works, and
2. Why it matters that Bob Mueller impaneled one.
Everything you wanted to know about grand juries.
This is the best article I found about the function of a grand jury. It's very well written. Highlights below:
Bob Mueller Is Using a Grand Jury. Here’s What It Means
* Only a grand jury can issue an indictment, which is the only way that someone can be charged with committing a felony pursuant to the U.S. Constitution.
* A grand jury, which consists of 16 to 23 people, is an important tool that allows prosecutors to issue subpoenas that require people to produce documents and other evidence.
* Subpoenas can also be used to compel people to testify under oath before the grand jury.
* The work that grand juries do is secret, which means that grand jurors—who are ordinary citizens chosen at random and vetted by the federal district court—cannot share what is happening before the grand jury.
* Federal rules also prevent prosecutors from disclosing what happens before the grand jury.
* [The] rules permit witnesses to disclose what happened, and people who receive grand jury subpoenas are usually not prohibited from disclosing their contents.
* [W]e will likely continue to hear media reports about witnesses and documents sought by Mueller and his team...
* When a witness testifies under oath before the grand jury, no one else is permitted to be present other than the prosecutor and the grand jurors. The witness is not even allowed to have a lawyer present, and the normal rules of evidence that limit questioning in a trial do not apply.
* Alternatively, when witnesses receive a grand jury subpoena, their lawyer often asks the prosecutor to agree to permit the witness to be interviewed by the prosecutor and an FBI agent with the lawyer present. The FBI agent’s presence would make it a crime to lie during the interview—creating the risk of Trump or one of his associates committing a crime through their words—but the lawyer would be present and could assist the witness.
Mueller has already hired 16 prosecutors—some of the most accomplished investigators ever assembled on one team.
These are people with deep skills and experience in prosecuting cases on money laundering, campaign finance violations and foreign bribery, as well as a sophisticated understanding of how to handle sprawling, complex investigations like this one.
If any crimes were committed, they’re likely to find out.
------------------------
How important is it that Mueller has formed a grand jury?
This is the best article I found to explain the importance of impaneling the grand jury. Highlights below!!
How important is it that Mueller has formed a grand jury? I asked 20 legal experts
Jens David Ohlin, law professor, Cornell University
This suggests that Mueller's investigation isn't an investigate-and-file-a-report-with-Congress type of deal — it's an investigate-and-indict effort.
Jed Shugerman, law professor, Fordham University
[N]ow Mueller has impaneled a special grand jury in DC focused on Russia, and that commitment means that
1) Mueller expects this new grand jury to be doing a lot of special work, and
2) it will be reviewing classified material.
A special grand jury devoted to a single investigation is very rare.
Perhaps a clearer signal of Mueller's case is his recent hire of Greg Andres, a former prosecutor specializing in foreign bribery and fraud. Andres would not leave his law firm if he did not expect to be very busy and very central to this case.
Victoria Nourse, law professor, Georgetown University
My personal speculation is that Mueller would not have done this if he did not have significant evidence. Mueller is a class act. I doubt he would risk his reputation, even among a few dozen people, without something that he already knows is potentially very serious.
Julie O’Sullivan, law professor, Georgetown University
One investigates potential white-collar crimes through grand juries. Mueller will call before the grand jury everyone who has had any possible involvement in the alleged collusion and the alleged obstruction, and get them on the record under oath.
They cannot decline to testify unless they take the Fifth [that is, invoke the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which says that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself"], and only then if they have a valid argument that their testimony may incriminate them.
Any decent white-collar lawyer will urge clients to take the Fifth, but a lot of politicians and businesspeople think they cannot do so without unacceptable collateral employment or reputational consequences, and so they testify. If they are smart, they will not lie. (Martha Stewart and Scooter Libby should serve as cautionary examples.)
I hope you found this interesting!
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