The U.S. Supreme Court edged closer to possible oral arguments on whether secret grand jury materials gathered during the Russia investigation should be shared with committees in Congress, putting on hold an order from lower courts for the feds to turn over those materials.
In an order issued Wednesday afternoon, the Justices invited the feds to ask the High Court to accept the case for review, giving the Justice Department a June 1 deadline to submit a writ of certiorari.
If the Justices were to accept the case, arguments would not take place until the fall, possibly right around the November elections.
In March, a three judge panel of the D.C. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Democrats in Congress, saying lawmakers have the right to go through the materials gathered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigators.
"Because the Department of Justice is simply the custodian of the grand jury materials at issue however, the instant case is unlike inter-branch disputes where Congress issued subpoenas and directed Executive Branch officials to testify and produce their relevant documents," wrote Judge Judith Rogers in the 2-1 decision.
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