Reporter Tierney Sneed over at TPM has written a great piece (HERE) covering both the history and new developments in Mueller’s Subpoena Case against an unknown Foreign Company. First the new developments.
Currently, the SCOTUS is deciding whether to take up the case on its merits. Last week Solicitor General Noel Francisco submitted a Brief to SCOTUS arguing that the case was a slam dunk and not worth the high court’s time, therefore they should not hear the case and allow the lower court’s ruling to stand. (Somewhat surprising that Trump’s hand-picked Solicitor General would argue so forcefully on Mueller’s behalf, but he probably knows that his job is to represent the DoJ’s (Mueller’s) position in front of SCOTUS.) Then on Wednesday (February 27), lawyers for the unknown Foreign Company filed their Brief urging SCOTUS to take the case, arguing that SCOTUS has to “stop the damage to Country A’s sovereign dignity.” There is no deadline that I’m aware of for SCOTUS to decide whether to take the case or not. But now that both sides have filed their Briefs, it’s probably a matter of a days or a few weeks.
However, the more interesting development came with the unsealing (release) of six (6) court documents. Although heavily redacted, they spell out the history of this subpoena case from its start to the present. Below is a timeline summary of this history from Sneed's TPM Article which contains some great detail:
Summary:
- Grand Jury issues Subpoena for documents on July 11, 2018 and Mueller gives the company until July 27, 2018 to comply.
- On July 26, 2018, the company responds saying they are pulling together the docs., but requests an extension of Mueller’s July 27 deadline.
- Mueller grants the company an extension to August 16, 2018, but warns the company that any further extensions requested will be denied.
- Per Sneed’s article:
“ The company asked for another extension nonetheless. When Mueller denied it, it kicked off the court fight on August 16, leading to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s first opinion, on September 19, upholding Mueller’s subpoena.”
- When the company again refused to comply, it was back to Beryl-Howell’s court for a contempt Hearing on October 5, 2018. As a result of that Hearing, the Judge surprisingly imposed a $50,000 a day fine on the company, above the standard $10,000 a day fine which Mueller requested. Her reasoning for this hefty fine as expressed in the Court Order was:
“the government’s need for prosecutorial expedience in a matter of great concern in the United States and in consideration of the sanction needed to coerce [REDACTED] compliance.”
- In November 2018, the case went to an appeals court which denied the company’s request and upheld the subpoena and the fine.
- The company took the case to SCOTUS asking that they hear the case and immediately issue a stay on the fine issued by Judge Beryl-Howell. On January 8, 2019, SCOTUS denied the company’s request to stay the fine, but did not rule on whether to take up the case.
- In January the case was also back in Judge Beryl-Howell’s Court where she issued 4 separate rulings. As per Sneed’s Article:
”One order addressed a request by the company’s lawyers that they be allowed to make a public statement about the case. At a Jan. 10 status conference, they told Howell that they had received threatening messages, her opinion said, but prosecutors opposed them being allowed to make a public statement.
Many of the details of that debate were redacted, but Howell landed on banning the company’s lawyers from commenting on information in the case that was not already public. In a later order, she clarified that the lawyers could not make any comments indicating the identity of company involved.”
Comment — I find this very curious on two fronts:
1) If no one supposedly knows the identity of the Foreign Company, how are they receiving “threatening messages?”; and
2) I thought the Company wanted to keep this case out of the public and hide their identity, but this Court filing suggests its the Government that wants to keep the case under wraps. Very Curious!
- One of the other matters before Judge Beryl-Howell in January was whether the Government could enforce the imposed fine by seizing Company property or other assets. In ruling in favor of the Government allowing Mueller to seize company property and assets within the US, Judge Beryl-Howell stated:
“At this point, short-circuiting the ordinary legal process just to offer a salve to a party openly defying orders approved by the DC Circuit, and which this country’s highest court refused to stay, undercuts the Court’s tools for ensuring compliance with a lawful order. Nothing about that option is practical or wise.”
- Judge Beryl-Howell also issued a firm start date of January 15, 2019 for the $50,000 per day fine. So by now the company has either paid a fine or Mueller has collected property/assets from the company valued at over $2.2 million and rising while they wait for SCOTUS to decide on whether to take up the case.
That’s It! That’s where things stand. But let me end with a few passing questions/comments:
- What’s with all the secrecy?
- Why is it the Government and the Court are the ones that apparently want to keep this case under wraps, and not the Company?
- What does Mueller think/know is in the Company’s documents that makes him go to such lengths to get this information?
- What’s in the Company’s documents that makes them willing to spend/lose millions of dollars in assets to keep hidden?
- What happens if SCOTUS does take the case? Will they hold unprecedented secret proceedings or will this be adjudicated in open session?
- What happens if SCOTUS does NOT take the case and the lower court ruling upholding the subpoena stands? Does the company cough up the documents or does it simply go on having its US assets seized until they are all gone?
Let me end with this:
Based on what we have seen so far, this case has to be critical to Mueller’s investigation and I don’t see how Mueller can wrap up his investigation until these court proceedings are completed. There can be no doubt that the documents being held by this company contain BOMBSHELL evidence against folks very high up in US or other governments.