Opinion ID: 663689
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: This Division's Role

Text: 30 It is of course a wholly different question whether we should allow the release of the Report, it having been made in the accusatory form. There is no precedent that clearly guides our hand in drafting an answer. The nearest authority offered by any contestant comes from movants opposing release of the Report who compare the document to grand jury reports naming persons as having been criminal actors without making a formal indictment against which the persons named can defend. Federal case law contains a few examples of such presentment and generally condemns the practice. 31 For example, in United States v. Briggs, the Fifth Circuit noted that [c]ommon law grand juries at times issued nonindicting reports. 514 F.2d 794, 801 (5th Cir.1975). Nonetheless, that circuit noted that it could find no substantial authority permitting a federal grand jury to issue a report accusing named private persons of criminal conduct. Id. at 802. It further noted that various courts have struck down with strong language efforts by grand juries to accuse persons of crime while affording them no forum in which to vindicate themselves. Id. (citing, inter alia, In re United Elec., Radio, and Mach. Workers, 111 F.Supp. 858, 867-68 (S.D.N.Y.1953)). 32 Movants argue, and we agree, that the fear of such condemnation by a grand jury arises in part from the fact that the grand jury report bears an official imprimatur, issued under the Court's aegis. They further contend that we should treat the Independent Counsel's Report just the same. That is, we should consider that it is issued with the Court's imprimatur, as the Court appointed the Independent Counsel, defined his jurisdiction, and most importantly, determined whether and to what extent to release the Report. See In re Sealed Motion, 880 F.2d at 1376-77. 33 We lay aside for the moment the matter of determining whether and to what extent to release the Report, as that is the very question before us. Aside from deciding that question, appointing and defining the jurisdiction of the Independent Counsel is all that we have done about the Independent Counsel and all that we are going to do. The Independent Counsel does not operate under our supervision and his acts, including the writing of the Report, do not bear our aegis. Indeed, if the Independent Counsel Act did vest us with supervisory power over the essentially executive functions performed by the attorneys we appoint, the statute would be constitutionally suspect as a breach of the separation of powers defined by Articles I, II & III of the Constitution. See Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. at 680-84, 108 S.Ct. at 2613-15. As one member of this Special Division has noted, the Supreme Court in Morrison carefully construed the Act to place severe limitations on this Court's authority over the Independent Counsel in order to save the constitutionality of the Act, consistent with the duty of courts  'to construe a statute in order to save it from constitutional infirmities.'  In re North, (Walsh Show Cause Order), 10 F.3d at 837 (Butzner, J., dissenting in part) (quoting Morrison, 487 U.S. at 682, 108 S.Ct. at 2614). 34 In short, the Report will not bear the imprimatur of the Court, nor is it issued under this Court's aegis. While we understand the movants' fear that it will be so perceived by the public, we are herein doing all we can to alleviate that misconception. 35 The Report and most specifically the unlitigated accusations contained in the Report are the Independent Counsel's. They are not the Court's. In a very real sense, the Independent Counsel's Report is no more a product of the Court than some statement made by a prosecutor to the news media. In Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2606, 125 L.Ed.2d 209 (1993), the Supreme Court acknowledged that [s]tatements to the press may be an integral part of a prosecutor's job, and they may serve a vital public function. But in these respects a prosecutor is in no different position than any other executive officials who deal with the press.... Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2618 (internal citation omitted) (citing National District Attorneys Ass'n, National Prosecution Standard 107, 110 (2d ed. 1991)). Here, the drafting of the Report may be a statutory duty of the Independent Counsel, but it is not part of any function of this Court and the Court places no imprimatur upon it. Therefore, though we find the objections of those movants who seek to have us rescind the release of the Report weighty, we do not find them to be controlling.