Justice Department seeks 50-year bar to release of grand jury material [View all]

[demmiblue]

Source: WaPo

The Justice Department is pushing for rule changes that would put a 50-year delay on when courts can consider releasing material from federal grand juries, according to documents and interviews, and would separately allow gag orders to be applied more broadly to witnesses.

While the recommendations were made during the Trump administration, President Biden’s Justice Department is still seeking the changes, even as critics oppose what they say would be a significant expansion of secrecy around federal courts and investigations.

Grand jury secrecy is a cornerstone of American criminal justice. Much of what is said in grand juries — where citizens, guided by a prosecutor, consider whether to indict someone for alleged crimes — is never made public.

But judges occasionally rule that some other interest merits the release of grand jury information.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/grand-jury-secrecy-gag-orders/2021/07/19/22585580-e898-11eb-8950-d73b3e93ff7f_story.html