The ruling could complicate hundreds of prosecutions over the Jan. 6 insurrection by requiring government personnel to be more involved in the process of sharing evidence
A federal judge has thrown a monkey wrench into the prosecution of more than 500 Capitol riot defendants by denying the Justice Department’s request to share grand jury materials with a contractor hired to organize the massive amounts of video, social media, email and other evidence in the cases.
“Deloitte, a private firm contracted by the government on a non-exclusive basis, is a private rather than a public governmental entity, and its staff are employees of the firm rather than the government. [The grand jury secrecy rule] thus does not allow disclosure of grand jury matters to Deloitte and its employees,” Howell added.
“Disclosures of grand jury information must be substantiated by more than a need for the government to separate efficiently the wheat from the chaff,” she said. The judge suggested in her new opinion that the Justice Department interpreted the rule strictly in that case, but wants it interpreted more liberally now that prosecutors could use some wiggle room to deal with the massive Jan. 6 investigation. She described the prosecutors’ new stance as “an expedient relaxation of the government’s position.”
This, she said, could spook witnesses concerned that the extensive evidence sharing could tip off outsiders to the scope and direction of the Justice Department’s Capitol riot investigation.
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