![]() ![]() The Democrats sought access to the redacted materials as part of their effort to build a case for removing Trump from office. "Blocking access to evidence collected by a grand jury relevant to an impeachment inquiry, as DOJ urges, undermines the House's ability to carry out its constitutional responsibility with due diligence," the judge added. ![]() Howell also ruled that the House has undertaken a legal and legitimate impeachment inquiry and criticized efforts by the Justice Department and the committee's ranking Republican Doug Collins to argue that Democrats had not met the legal threshold. "Impeachment based on anything less than all relevant evidence would compromise the public's faith in the process," added Howell, a former federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by Trump's Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. "DOJ is wrong," Howell said, adding that the committee's need for disclosure of the materials "is greater than the need for continued secrecy." The department had argued that the redacted information could not be disclosed because it contained material from grand jury proceedings that was required to be kept secret, but the judge strongly disagreed. "The reality is that DOJ and the White House have been openly stonewalling the House's efforts to get information by subpoena and by agreement, and the White House has flatly stated that the Administration will not cooperate with congressional requests for information," the judge wrote, using an acronym for the Justice Department. The judge gave the Justice Department until next Wednesday to provide the blacked out material from the Mueller report that was subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee. ![]()
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