In response to five media outlets asking to see sealed court documents pertaining to the Russia investigation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team filed a "response to motion" this week explaining his probe is an "ongoing criminal investigation with multiple lines of non-public inquiry," and, therefore, search warrants, affidavits, and other materials need to stay sealed.
Mueller's team adds that while some charges have been filed, the overall investigation is not complete.
“The Special Counsel’s investigation is not a closed matter, but an ongoing criminal investigation with multiple lines of non-public inquiry,” prosecutors wrote in a brief submitted to U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. “The investigation consists of multiple lines of inquiry within the overall scope of the Special Counsel’s authority. Many aspects of the investigation are factually and legally interconnected: they involve overlapping courses of conduct, relationships, and events, and they rely on similar sources, methods, and techniques. The investigation is not complete and its details remain non-public.”
While Mueller’s inquiry has now been underway for more than a year and the FBI was investigating even earlier, none of a slew of search warrants, surveillance requests and similar filings have been officially unsealed by the courts. However, defense lawyers for Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, have made public some details on two search warrants they have challenged in the criminal cases against their client.
POLITICO, The Associated Press, The New York Times, CNN and The Washington Post are the five media organizations asking Judge Jackson to unseal warrants and other materials, arguing the public has a great interest in transparency given the extraordinary political and historical significance of the Russia investigation.
However, Mueller's prosecutors say even the slightest revelations at this point would inflict severe damage on the inquiry.
“The dates and volume of warrants also reveal the evolution and direction of investigative interests,” Mueller attorneys Michael Dreeben, Andrew Weissmann and Adam Jed wrote. “Making this information public while an investigation is ongoing could pose a clear and ominous threat to the investigation’s integrity.”
Mueller’s team offered one concession: It said it would agree to a fuller but still less-than-complete release of the two search warrants being battled over in the Manafort cases.
“Because these are among the earliest warrants obtained in the investigation and only two warrants are at issue,” the prosecutors wrote, “the government believes that it could practicably redact sensitive information and nonetheless leave unredacted certain information whose disclosure would not harm the ongoing investigation.”
Mueller fights media access to secret court filings (Politico)
Government's Response to Motion for Public Access to Certain Sealed Court Records