Mueller Report May Face a Bizarre Hurdle

Politico explains how the case of a professor's 1956 disappearance could prevent its release
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 27, 2018 9:30 AM CDT
Mueller Report May Face a Bizarre Hurdle
Robert Mueller in a file photo.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

It's a safe bet this will end up being Monday's strangest twist in the Robert Mueller investigation: Politico explains how the unrelated case of a professor who disappeared in 1956 could prevent Mueller from making his report public. It takes some unpacking: More than six decades ago, a Columbia university professor and political activist named Jesus Galindez went missing, and a leading theory is that he was kidnapped, brought to the Dominican Republic, and murdered. (Sound Hollywood-esque? See the 2003 film The Galindez File.) Attorney and author Stuart McKeever has been digging into the case, and he wants a judge to release testimony given to a grand jury that investigated the professor's disappearance. And that brings us to the Mueller connection.

Such testimony is usually kept secret, and an appeals court is expected to rule next month whether judges have a right to release it to the public. If the court sides with the Justice Department and says the testimony must remain under wraps, the same principle could apply to Mueller: He might not be legally able to publish his report, which draws from grand jury testimony. The story notes that if Democrats win control of the House in November, it's largely a moot point, because the House Judiciary panel could subpoena the report as part of an impeachment inquiry. But if the GOP retains control, the precedent becomes an issue. “It is a sleeper case,” says Harvard professor Alex Whiting, and it could "have potentially enormous implications for the future of the information from the Mueller investigation." Read the full story by Josh Gerstein at Politico. (More Robert Mueller stories.)

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