Court Opinion

ID: 9638811
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:55:05.989153+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:08.023172
License: Public Domain

RIVES, GEWIN and GRIFFIN B. BELL, Circuit Judges
(concurring in part and dissenting in part) :
The question presented arose pointedly when the foreman of the grand jury, in the presence of the grand jurors in open court, requested help from the court as follows:
“BY FOREMAN COWAN:
“Judge Cox, we have under consideration three different matters, two we have concluded, the third is in the process of being concluded. On yesterday we asked Mr. Hauberg, the United States District Attorney, to- assist us in preparing true bills in the manner that we have been served here before handing us these bills. Mr. Hauberg said that he could not do so without permission being given from the Department in Washington. We concluded yesterday afternoon by asking him to secure that permission and to have those true bills ready for us this morning. Mr. Hauberg now tells us that he has been instructed on all three matters not so to do. In other words we are at the position now in the event that we should vote indictment why we don’t know what to do with it after that may or may not be accomplished.” (Emphasis added.)
The court then asked the District Attorney if he wished to respond. The District Attorney stated that he had been instructed by the Acting Attorney General not to prepare the indictments. The record discloses that the grand jury had heard evidence about certain matters which the Attorney General’s office had already investigated and determined did not warrant prosecution. The grand jury had also heard evidence about matters of which the Attorney General had no knowledge and had made no investigation.1 The District Attorney disclosed to the court that the Acting Attorney General had directed him to request the *174FBI to investígate such matters, but that he had likewise been directed not to proceed in assisting the grand jury. In this colloquy the court stated to the District Attorney that the court considered the grand jury to be within its province in hearing the matters under consideration and in passing upon them pursuant to their oath. Accordingly, the court directed the District Attorney to disregard his instructions from the Department of Justice and to serve the grand jury by preparing the true bills as had been requested. The court then recessed and requested the District Attorney to communicate further with the Department of Justice and to advise that Department of the instructions of the court. After the recess, the District Attorney reported to the court that he had conferred by telephone with the Acting Attorney General who instructed him as follows:
“I have been instructed ‘As United States Attorney neither you nor any of your assistants are authorized to prepare or to sign indictments in the matters being heard on October 21 and 22 by the Grand Jury and I direct you and your assistants to refrain from doing so in your official capacity. If the Court should direct you to disregard my instructions on pain of contempt you should inform the Court that the Department will immediately apply to the Court of Appeals for a writ prohibiting such an order. You should request the Court for a stay of further proceedings pending the application and decision with respect to the writ of prohibition.” v
The court further inquired whether the District Attorney was refusing to obey the court’s order to prepare true bills and sign the same as requested by the grand jury “in these cases presently pending and being considered by the Grand Jury.” The District Attorney stated to the court as follows:
“If the Court please, because of instructions I have received I most humbly and respectfully have to refuse to comply.”
Thus the basic issue before this Court is whether the controlling discretion as to the institution of a felony prosecution rests with the Attorney General2 or with the grand jury. The majority opinion would ignore the broad inquisitorial powers of the grand jury, and limit the constitutional requirement of Amendment V to the benefit of the accused.3
We agree with Professor Orfield that:
“The grand jury serves two' great functions."360 One is to bring to trial
persons accused of crime upon just grounds. The other is to protect persons against unfounded or mali*175cious prosecutions by insuring that no criminal proceeding will be undertaken without a disinterested determination of probable guilt. The inquisitorial function has been called the more important.361
Orfield, The Federal Grand Jury, 22 F.R.D. 343, 394.
In the case last cited by Professor Or-field, Judge Kilpatrick said:
“The inquisitorial power of the grand jury is the most valuable function which it possesses today and, far more than any supposed protection which it gives to the accused, justifies its survival as an institution. As an engine of discovery against organized and far-reaching crime, it has no counterpart. Policy emphatically forbids that there should be any curtailment of it except in the clearest cases.”
In re Grand Jury Proceedings, D.C.E.D. Pa.1933, 4 F.Supp. 283, 284.
The grand jury possesses plenary and independent inquisitorial powers. The Supreme Court has held that an Executive Order and a Circular Letter of the Department of Justice requiring approval of the Attorney General before any evidence could be presented in certain cases “was not intended to curtail or limit the well-recognized power of the grand jury to consider and investigate any alleged crime within its jurisdiction. See United States v. Thompson, 251 U.S. 407, 413-415, 40 S.Ct. 289, 291-292, 64 L.Ed. 333; Blair v. United States, 250 U.S. 273, 282, 39 S.Ct. 468, 471, 63 L.Ed. 779; Hale v. Henkel, 201 U.S. 43, 61-66, 26 S. Ct. 370, 373-376, 50 L.Ed. 652; Frisbie v. United States, 157 U.S. 160, 163, 15 S.Ct. 586, 587, 39 L.Ed. 657.” Sullivan v. United States, 1954, 348 U.S. 170, 173, 75 S.Ct. 182, 184, 99 L.Ed. 210.
A federal grand jury has the unquestioned right to inquire into any matter within the jurisdiction involving violations of law and to return an indictment if it finds a reasonable probability that a crime has been committed. This it may do at the instance of the court, the District Attorney, the Attorney General or on its own initiative, from evidence it may gather or from knowledge of its members.4
The majority holds that: “The provision of Rule 7, requiring the signing of the indictment by the attorney for the Government, is a recognition of the power of Government counsel to permit or not to permit the bringing of an indictment.”
With deference we call attention that no authority is cited in support of that holding and we submit that it ignores the history of the grand jury and of the Rules of Criminal Procedure. Professor Orfield, himself a member of the Advisory Committee on Rules of Criminal Procedure, has preserved for us the history of Rule 6, captioned “The Grand Jury.” See 22 F.R.D. 346-357. There is nothing in that history, nor in the succeeding Rule 7, which would authorize Government counsel to so radically reduce the powers of the grand jury. To the contrary, Professor Orfield points out that before the federal criminal rules, “It was the practice of the United States Attorney or his assistant to sign the indictment and for the foreman to sign below the endorsement ‘A True Bill’ on the face of it.” 22 F.R.D. 377, 378. Rule 7 simply continued the already existing practice. Professor Orfield further states,
*176“When the United States Attorney does sign, this ‘merely attests the action of the grand jury.’357
22 F.R.D. at 394. In the' case cited by Professor Orfield, Crowley v. United States, 1903, 194 U.S. 461, 475, 24 S.Ct. 731, 737, the Supreme Court said:
“The indictment embodies charges made by grand jurors, and the signature of the United States Attorney merely attests the action of the grand jury, whereas an information rests upon the responsibility of the attorney representing the government, and imports an investigation of the facts by him in his official capacity.” (Emphasis added.)
The finding and return of the indictment are the acts of the grand jury. When a United States Attorney prepares and signs an indictment, he does not adopt, approve, or vouch for the charge, nor does he institute a criminal prosecution.5
The United States Attorney cannot, except in an advisory capacity, inquire into the merits of whether indictments should be found and returned in particular cases being considered by the grand jury. Only the grand jurors themselves have that power. It would be grossly wrong for it to be usurped. Moreover, that is practically impossible, because “no person other than the [grand] jurors may be present while the grand jury is deliberating or voting.” Rule 6(d), F.R.Crim.P. The responsibility of finding and returning an indictment rests solely upon the grand jurors.
The majority holds, “If the attorney [that is the attorney for the Government] refuses to sign, as he has the discretionary power of doing, we conclude there is no valid indictment.” The only authority cited for that holding is 4 Barron & Holtzoff, Federal Practice & Procedure 61, § 1913, which, in turn, cites Wheatley v. United States, 4 Cir. 1946, 159 F.2d 599, where the rule was well stated as follows by Judge Soper, Judges Parker and Dobie concurring:
“It has been held that the signature of the prosecuting attorney is no part of the indictment and is necessary only as evidence of the authenticity of the document; and it has also been held that the improper signing of an indictment is not such a defect as would invalidate the instrument; In re Lane, 135 U.S. 443, 449, 10 S.Ct. 760, 34 L.Ed. 219; Miller v. United States, 6 Cir., 300 F. 529, 536, cer-tiorari denied, 266 U.S. 624, 45 S.Ct. 123, 69 L.Ed. 474; King v. United States, 5 Cir., 279 F. 103, 104; United States v. McAvoy, C.C.N.Y., 26 Fed.Cas. (No. 15,654) 1044, 1045.”
We submit that the rule is well settled that the absence of the signature of the United States Attorney from an indictment does not invalidate a conviction based on it.6
Rule 7(c), F.R.Crim.P., provides that the indictment “shall be signed by the attorney for the government.” 7 Rule 6 (c) requires that the foreman of the grand jury also “shall sign all indictments.” 8 An indictment may be found upon the concurrence of twelve or more jurors. It must be returned by the grand jury to a judge in open court. Such return is not adequate authentication. *177Rule 6(f). Professor Orfield states that, “Indorsement is desirable as sometimes grand juries return indictments which they have not found.” Orfield, “The Federal Grand Jury,” 22 F.R.D. 343, 377. The signature of the United States Attorney is a mere authentication that the indictment is the act of the grand jury.
It is not for us to pass upon the wisdom of requiring such authentication. It is enough that the law provides for the indictment to be authenticated by the signature of the attorney for the government. The United States Attorney is an officer of the court, and may be required to perform this purely ministerial act. There are few legal documents which bear more awful import and potential effect upon liberty and life than does an indictment. The importance of an indictment makes rational the triple authentication which the rules have seen fit to require; viz., that it be signed both by the attorney for the government and by the foreman, and that it be returned by the grand jury to a judge in open court. All doubt will thus be removed as to whether the indictment is really the act of the grand jury.
The Attorney General himself takes the position that the grand jury has the power to return a valid indictment without the signature of the District Attorney, but contends that such an indictment does not require the defendant charged therein to answer or plead to it, or to appear and give bond. Such an indictment, according to the Attorney General’s contentions, is innocuous so far as the defendant is concerned, unless and until the District Attorney or one of his assistants signs. In the meantime it is conceded that such an indictment would lie in court inactive and ineffective. Statutes of limitations would not be tolled by the return of such an indictment according to the Attorney General. He asserts that only the signature of the District Attorney (or his authorized assistants) gives the indictment life. Such argument is used to support the position that the action of the Department of Justice or the District Attorney in refusing to prepare or sign the indictment in no way impairs, impedes or influences the action of the grand jury. The Attorney General suggests that the grand jury can obtain assistance to a degree from the judge, and that some “outside person” may assist the grand jury in preparing the indictment, but that such “outside person” has no authority to sign the indictment and no authority to enter the grand jury room. In our view, the position of the Attorney General is untenable. We subscribe fully to the following assertion from the exhaustive and scholarly opinion of Judge Fee in United States v. Smyth, subsequently cited with approval by the Supreme Court in Sullivan v. United States, supra.
“The grand jury is similar to the trial jury, who may convict notwithstanding positive instructions to acquit and who may pardon notwithstanding a direction to find guilty. Unquestionably, the grand jury are under no necessity to follow the orders of the prosecutor. They can present an indictment whether he will or no.” 9 (104 F.Supp. 283, 294.)
The Attorney General insists that the prosecution of offenses against the United States is an executive function of the *178Attorney General deraigned from the executive power vested in the President to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” U.S.Const. art. II, § 3. The short answer is that one of the most fundamental and important of the laws so to be faithfully executed is the clear and explicit provision of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution that “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury * *
The Fifth Amendment adopted the grand jury as it had then been developed in England over the course of many centuries, and made it a part of the fundamental law of the United States for the institution of prosecutions for crime.10 Thus the grand jury originated long before the doctrine of separation of powers was made the constitutional basis of our frame of government. The same Constitution which separated the three powers of government adopted the institution of the grand jury. It follows that no nice distinction need be drawn as to whether the grand jury may perform some function of the executive department. As well said by the Seventh Circuit:
“While the grand jury is, in a sense, a part of our court system, when exercising its traditional functions it possesses an independence which is unique. Its authority is derived from none of the three basic divisions of our government, but rather directly from the people themselves.”
In re April 1956 Term Grand Jury, 1956, 239 F.2d 263, 269.
Moreover, in point of law and reality, the plenary inquisitorial power of the grand jury does not impinge in the slightest upon the executive function of the Attorney General to prosecute or not to prosecute offenses against the United States, for as soon as the indictment is returned, “The Attorney General or the United States Attorney may by leave of court file a dismissal * * *.” Rule 48 (a), F.R.Crim.P. The majority express the view that their holding of a discretionary power of the United States Attorney to prevent an indictment is needed to remove some doubt as to the constitutionality of the requirement of Rule 48 *179for leave of court for a dismissal of a pending prosecution. We do not agree that any such doubt exists. Rule 48(a) was primarily intended to authorize the court to protect defendants and not to confer prosecutive functions upon the court. Judge Weinfield in United States v. Greater Blouse, Skirt & Neckwear Contractors Ass’n, S.D.N.Y.1964, 228 F.Supp. 483, 489-490, well described the situation which might arise after indictment where the Attorney General or the United States Attorney does not wish to prosecute and where the district court denies dismissal:
“The Attorney General is the head of the Department of Justice, a part of the Executive branch of the Government. Even were leave of Court to the dismissal of the indictment denied, the Attorney General would still have the right to adhere to the Department’s view that the indictment cannot be supported by proof upon a trial of the merits, and accordingly, in the exercise of his discretion, decline to move the case for trial. The Court in that circumstance would be without power to issue a mandamus or other order to compel prosecution of the indictment, since such a direction would invade the traditional separation of powers doctrine. And if the indictment continues to remain in status quo, each defendant would be in a position to move for dismissal of the indictment under Rule 48(b).”
The grand jury may be permitted to function in its traditional sphere, while at the same time enforcing the separation of powers doctrine as between the executive and judicial branches of the government. This can best be done, indeed, it is mandatory, by requiring the United States Attorney to assist the grand jury in preparing indictments which they wish to consider or return, and by requiring the United States Attorney to sign any indictment that is to be returned. Then, once the indictment is returned, the Attorney General or the United States Attorney can refuse to go forward. That refusal will, of course, be in open court and not in the secret confines of the grand jury room. To permit the district court to compel the United States Attorney to proceed beyond this point would invest prosecutorial power in the judiciary, power which under the Constitution is reserved to the executive branch of the government. It may be that the court, in the interest of justice, may require a showing of good faith, and a statement of some rational basis for dismissal. In the unlikely event of bad faith or irrational action, not here present, it may be that the court could appoint counsel to prosecute the case. In brief, the court may have the same inherent power to administer justice to the government as it does to the defendant. That question is not now before us and may never arise. Except for a very limited discretion, however, the court’s power to withhold leave to dismiss an indictment is solely for the protection of the defendant.
The United States Attorney is under an affirmative and mandatory duty to lend his assistance to a grand jury in making effective its decision to institute a criminal prosecution. When the grand jury insists on finding and returning an indictment, the Attorney General must acquiesce, even though its action may be contrary to the advice of the United States Attorney. The further prosecution of the case is another matter.
We agree that proper enforcement of the law does not require that indictments should be returned in every case where probable cause exists. Public policy may in some instances require that a case not be prosecuted. Such consideration of public policy may be submitted to and acted on by the grand jury. As well said by Colonel E. R. Mattoon in an article entitled “The Lawyer as a Social Force,” 15 Ala.Law, 55, 64 (1954): “* * * the jury system calls on the lawyer to have faith in the common man- — -that the average citizen can be relied on, when given an adequate explanation, to understand a problem, apply reason to it, and arrive at a wise solution. This faith in *180the common man to solve his problems by his own reason is of the essence of a democracy.” In the few cases in which the United States Attorney is unable to persuade the grand jury and the Attorney General disagrees with its action, his recourse is not to prevent the grand jury from finding and returning an effective indictment, but to file a dismissal of the indictment under Rule 48(a), F.R. Crim.P.11
For the Attorney General to prevent the grand jury from returning an indictment would, in effect, be to confine the grand jury to returning a mere presentment. That derogates from the grand jury its alternative power to return either “a presentment or indictment.” U. S.Const, amend. V. The power of the grand jury cannot be limited in any case to a presentment; it may return an indictment.
Looking beyond the present controversy, one can foresee the grave danger inherent in such a restriction of the powers of a grand jury. If a grand jury is prevented from returning an indictment no more effective than a presentment, the statute of limitations may permanently bar prosecution for the crime. When the presentment is made public, the accused may flee or witnesses may get beyond the jurisdiction of the court. For all practical purposes, the case could be dead and there would be no point in any future Attorney General causing the presentment to be followed by an indictment. Worse still, this could be accomplished in the shadows of secrecy, with the Attorney General not being required to disclose his reasons. How much better is the constitutional system by which the grand jury can find and return an effective indictment upon which a prosecution for crime is instituted. At that point the power of the grand jury ceases. It is effectively checked and overbalanced by the power of the Attorney General, recognized in Rule 48(a), to move for a dismissal of the indictment. The court may then require such a motion to be heard in open court. Instead of a prevention in the shadows of secrecy, there would be a dismissal in a formal, public judicial proceeding. fíWe do not believe that the Acting Attorney General has the authority to instruct a District Attorney to refuse to serve a grand jury when help is requested directly by the grand jury and when he is ordered by the presiding trial judge to give such service and assistance. That question arose in United States v. Smyth, supra, where there appeared to be a conflict between an assistant district attorney and his superiors. The court concluded:
“. * * * So, when the grand jury is impaneled, an Assistant United States Attorney goes into the grand jury room. So far as the grand jury and the public are concerned, he is the United States Attorney. All accept him as such. He need not wear a uniform. He need not present to the grand jury authorization signed by the United States Attorney. He is an officer duly designated and acting by virtue of his appointment. He has power to be present at any session of the grand jury and may talk to them freely inside or outside the grand jury room, except when the grand jury is deliberating or voting. His authority is not destroyed by any order of the United States Attorney that someone else conduct the proceedings or by any controversy in the office of the United States Attorney.” (Emphasis added.) (104 F.Supp. 306.)
In brief and in oral argument the Acting Attorney General states that ethical or moral considerations support his re*181fusal to permit assistance to the grand jury or to permit the signing of the indictment by a government attorney. He relies on Rule 11, F.R.Civ.P. and Rule 7(c), F.R.Crim.P.12 We disagree. It is true that an indictment may properly be described as a type of pleading in a criminal ease, but it constitutes the action of the grand jury and not the Attorney General. No one could logically contend that the Attorney General or the District Attorney was preferring the charges, because neither of them is permitted to remain in the grand jury room during deliberations or when the grand jurors vote a true bill or refuse to indict.13 It is well for the Attorney General to investigate, but conclusions reached by him as to facts are not binding on the grand jury. Grand jurors are unlimited in their inquisitorial powers. Their source of information is not limited to facts disclosed by investigative agencies or to information furnished by the Attorney General or the District Attorney.14 It is often true that lawyers and judges alike disagree with the actions of petit juries and grand juries. Corrective legal action may be taken, but neither the grand jury nor the petit jury can be compelled to follow the course of action desired by either the court or the Justice Department. The short answer to all of these contentions is the fact that Rule 11, F.R.Civ.P. does not apply to an indictment. On the other hand, Rule 7(c), F.R.Crim.P. positively requires the signature of the District Attorney.
By way of precaution, let us state that nothing here said is intended to reflect upon the present Acting Attorney General, in whose integrity we have the utmost confidence. Memory goes back, however, to days when we had an Attorney General suspected of being corrupt. There is no assurance that that will never again happen. We are establishing a precedent for other cases; we are construing a Constitution; we should retain intact that great constitutional bulwark, the institution of the grand jury.
On the cases before the Court, we agree with Judge Brown that the United States Attorney is required, upon the request of the grand jury, to draft forms of indictment in accordance with its desires. There is thus a majority of the Court in favor of that holding. We go further, and think that the United States Attorney is required to sign any indictment that may be found by the grand jury. We concur with the majority as to the dismissal of the appeal of the Acting Attorney General and as to the denial of the petition for writ of prohibition. We would, however, affirm the judgment of civil contempt against the United States Attorney.
We therefore concur in part and dissent in part.

. “BY MB. HAUBERG:
“If the Court please, after the grand jury requested me to prepare proposed indictments in several matters on yesterday I contacted Mr. Burke Marshall and had a lengthy conversation with him and was to receive further instructions early this morning, but last night I was instructed that not to prepare the proposed indictments. This morning on the telephone with Mr. Katzenbach, the Acting Attorney General of the United States, and Mr. Burke Marshall both on the telephone there I was directed by Mr. Katzenbach that as to the one of the matters the Department of Justice and the United States felt as if the law and the fact was not sufficient to constitute perjury and that an indictment thereon would be no good.
“BY THE COURT:
“That’s iu connection with the two witnesses for the government wasn’t it that they are considering?
“BY MR. HAUBERG:
“Yes, Your Honor, and as to the other two matters the Department of Justice had no knowledge of the individuals involved until the Grand Jury received or started taking testimony on its starting out with Mr. Boyce I-Iolleman back I believe on the 30th of September and the Department had not conducted or had the FBI conduct any investigation in either that matter or in the matter which subsequently came to the attention of the Grand Jury this week. I am authorized to state that the Attorney General has requested me and directed me to ask the FBI to investigate those other *174two matters, but that as United States Attorney I would be unable to proceed in either one of these matters, so I have now as of this morning, Tour Honor, been directed by Mr. Katzenbach that as a United States Attorney or representing the United States of America that I cannot proceed in any one of these three matters, that Mr. Katzenbach, the Attorney General, has taken away my authority as such.”

. The United States Attorney has acted at the direction of the Attorney General, and the record does not disclose his independent views.

“360. In re Charge to Grand Jury, C.C.C. Cal.1872, 30 Fed.Cas. pages 992, 993, No. 18,255, dissenting opinion of Harlan, J., in Hurtado v. People of State of California, 1884, 110 U.S. 516, 538, 555-556, 4 S.Ct. Ill, 28 L.Ed. 232; Ex parte Bain, 1887, 121 U.S. 1, 11, 7 S.Ct. 781, 786, 30 L.Ed. 849.

. According to the majority, “The constitutional provision is not to be read as conferring on or preserving to the grand jury, as such, any rights or prerogatives. The constitutional provision is, as has been said, for the benefit of the accused. The constitutional provision is not to be read as precluding, as essential to the validity of an indictment the inclusion of requisites which did not exist at common law.”

“361. in re Grand Jury Proceedings, D. C.E.D.Pa.1933, 4 F.Supp. 283, 284.”

. Hale v. Henkel, 1906, 201 U.S. 43, 26 S.Ct. 370; United States v. Thompson, 1920, 251 U.S. 407, 40 S.Ct. 289; Blair v. United States, 1919, 250 U.S. 273, 39 S.Ct. 468; Frisbie v. United States, 1895, 157 U.S. 160, 15 S.Ct. 586; United States v. Philadelphia & R. Ry. Co., E.D. Pa.1915, 225 F. 301; United States v. Smythe, N.D.Cal.1952, 104 F.Supp. 283; Re Miller (D.C.Pa.) F.Cas. No. 9552; and see Re Charge to Grand Jury (C.C. W.Va.) F.Cas. No. 18248.

“357. Crowley v. United States, 1904, 194 U.S. 461, 475, 24 S.Ct. 731, 737, 48 L.Ed. 1075.”

. That is true also as to the foreman who is under a duty to “sign all indictments,” including those for which he does not vote. See Rule 6(c). (Emphasis added.)

. In re Lane, 1890, 135 U.S. 443, 449, 10 S.Ct. 760; Abramson v. United States, 5 Cir. 1964, 326 F.2d 565, 567; United States v. Keig, 7 Cir. 1964, 334 F.2d 823; Wiltsey v. United States, 4 Cir. 1955, 222 F.2d 600; Wheatley v. United States, 4 Cir. 1946, 159 F.2d 599; King v. United States, 5 Cir. 1922, 279 F. 103.

. “Attorney for the government” is defined in Rule 54(c), F.R.Crim.P.

. The forms attached to Rule 58 provide for the signatures of both the foreman and the United States Attorney.

. In support of the quoted conclusion, Judge Fee quotes the following in footnote 44 from the Manual for Grand Jurors, prepared by the Federal Grand Jurors Association for the Eastern District of New York, Congressional Record, February 21, 1952, A1115:
“ ‘8. What is the place of the United States Attorney (or his assistant) in the functioning of the grand jury? You must naturally accord him the respect due an officer of the government, sworn to protect and enforce its laws; you must realize that usually he is an intelligent, experienced individual acting in all sincerity. But do not forget that he is from the viewpoint of the grand jury, only a lawyer, an agent of the Federal Department of Justice and by law he is only the legal ad-visor to the grand jury. This does not make him infallible in his opinions, although his experience and position require respectful attention of the ju*178rors. Should a dispute arise between him and the grand jury, recourse should be had to the federal judge who administered the oath to you.’ The grand jury has the power and duty: ‘7. To insist at all times on the independence of the grand jury from pressures of any sort, whether these stem from the prosecuting official or the court * * *.’ ”
Judge Fee makes the following additional assertions in his opinion as to the power of grand jurors:
“ * * *. As such, with its essential elements of plenary power to investigate and secrecy of its deliberations, it was preserved by the Constitution of the United States not only to protect the defendant but to permit public spirited citizens, chosen by democratic procedures, to attack corrupt conditions. A criticism of the action of the grand jury is a criticism of democracy itself.” (Opinion p. 288.) “ * * *. But the grand jurors, by use of secrecy of their proceedings, stubbornly retained the power of instituting an investigation of their own knowledge or taking a rumor or suspicion and expanding it through witnesses. As we shall see, this comprehensive power also remains at this hour. The Constitution of the United States preserved the grand jury with all its powers and inherent character. * * * No other instrument can cope with organized crime which cuts across state lines, conspiracies to overthrow the government of the United States, or alleged deviations from rectitude by those who have been entrusted by the government with public trust. Even the most virulent critics are unanimously in accord that the grand juries must be preserved in the federal system for these purposes.” (Opinion pp. 290-291.)

. See Costello v. United States, 1956, 350 U.S. 359, at 361, 76 S.Ct. 406, 100 L.Ed. 397; Ex parte Bain, 1887, 121 U.S. 1, 10, 11, 7 S.Ct. 781, 30 L.Ed. 849; In re April 1956 Term Grand Jury, 7 Cir. 1956, 239 F.2d 263, 268, 269.

. Under the Attorney General’s theory as to separation of powers, it is logical to argue that the Attorney General or the United States Attorney has the power to prevent a bench warrant from issuing on an indictment even though it has been held that the court itself has no such power. Ex parte United States, 1932, 287 U.S. 241, 53 S.Ct. 129, 77 L.Ed. 283. Such a result is, however, somewhat anomalous or at least startling.

. See Rule 7(c), F.R.Crim.P. Rule 11 provides:
“The signature of an attorney constitutes a certificate by him that he has read the pleading; that to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief there is good ground to support it; and that it is not interposed for delay. * * * For a wilful violation of these rules an attorney may be subjected to appropriate disciplinary action.”

. The -rule may be different as to significance of the District Attorney’s signature on an information. That question is not before us.

. The following statement of the rule was approved in United States v. Thompson, 1920, 251 U.S. 407, 40 S.Ct. 289, 64 L.Ed. 333:
“That the power and duty of the grand jury to investigate is original and complete, susceptible of being exercised upon its own motion and upon such knowledge as it may derive from any source which it may deem proper, and is not therefore dependent for its exertion upon the approval or disapproval of the court; that this power is continuous and is therefore not exhausted or limited by adverse action taken by a grand jury or by its failure to act, and hence may thereafter be exerted as to the same instances by the same or a subsequent grand jury.”