Court Opinion

ID: 7838178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-08 16:36:43.941038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:54:24.001565
License: Public Domain

MacKINNON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in the implicit finding that the petitioners have standing to seek the relief here requested. My view of the record, however, after the limited research permitted by the rapidity with which this court has handled this matter, convinces me that the grand jury exceeded its authority in releasing (1) the report, (2) the so-called index, and (3) the selective evidence. Application of United Electrical, Radio & Mine Workers, 111 F.Supp. 858 (S.D.N.Y.1953); see conflicting authorities in Judge Sirica’s opinion. The process of composing the index and selecting the evidence supporting it necessarily reflects a conscious and focused judgment by the grand jury on the credibility of witnesses and the inferences to be drawn from the totality of evidence presented to it. Moreover, potentially exculpatory material may have been excluded. For these reasons, it is my opinion that the interests of justice will not be furthered by transmitting to the Committee this grand jury report and the selective evidence accompanying it. Congress would only be forced to come back for additional testimony if it is to judge credibility, as it certainly should do.
I would expunge the entire grand jury report and permit the House Judiciary Committee, on request to the District Court, to have access not only to the limited testimony accompanying the report and index but to the entire grand jury proceedings under supervision of the court in the manner generally followed by Chief Judge Bryan in In re Petition for Disclosure of Evidence, 184 F.Supp. 38 (E.D.Va.1960). In this way the House Committee would be better able itself to pass on credibility without having credibility prejudged for it. Chief Judge Bryan, in his opinion, supra, deferred disclosure to the state and local authorities until after the federal trials were completed. He thus protected those who were the subject of federal indictments. Those indicted here are not receiving that protection. The prosecutor here, however, has indicated that he is knowledgeably and intentionally taking a calculated risk that the transmission of this evidence with the risk of its premature disclosure may make it impossible for those indicted to receive a fair trial. In my view that is a hazard the Special Prosecutor is permitted to take at this stage of the criminal proceedings.
As for the argument made by the Special Prosecutor that Rule 6(e) does not limit disclosure by the judge in releasing grand jury testimony, it is my view that said rule is a codification of longstanding decisions that hold to the “indispensable secrecy of grand jury proceedings . . . except where there is a compelling necessity,” United States v. Procter & Gamble, 356 U.S. 677, 683, 78 S.Ct. 983, 986, 2 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1958); United States v. Johnson, 319 U.S. 503, 513, 63 S.Ct. 1075, 87 L.Ed. 1413 (1943), and that the judge is as much bound by this rule as other persons. A contrary interpretation strains *157the language and obvious intent of Rule 6(e) and frustrates its operation.
At oral argument the prosecutor represented that this disclosure of the grand jury material to the House Judiciary Committee and eventually possibly to the House and Senate is being made “preliminarily to [and] in connection with a judicial proceeding,” Fed.R.Crim. P. 6(e),1 in which due process of law will be available. My concurrence in the release of the grand jury material has taken this representation into consideration.

. (e) Secrecy of Proceedings and Disclosure. Disclosure of matters occurring before the grand jury other than its deliberations and the vote of any juror may be made to the attorneys for the government for use in the performance of their duties. Otherwise a juror, attorney, interpreter, stenographer, operator of a recording device, or any typist who transcribes recorded testimony may disclose matters occurring before the grand jury only when so directed by the court preliminary to or in connection with a judicial proceeding or when permitted by the court at the request of the defendant upon a showing that grounds may exist for a motion to dismiss the indictment because of matters occurring before the grand jury. No obligation of secrecy may be imposed upon any person except in accordance with this rule. The court may direct that an indictment shall be kept secret until the defendant is in custody or has given bail, and in that event the clerk shall seal the indictment and no person shall disclose the finding of the indictment except when necessary for the issuance and execution of a warrant or summons.
(Emphasis added.)