Journalists ask court for more information on grand jury related matters

WASHINGTON -- As part of the continuing cleanup of legal matters related to the Monica Lewinsky investigation, lawyers representing CNN and other news organizations asked a federal appeals court to create a public docket listing court proceedings associated with grand jury investigations at the U.S. District Court in Washington.

Throughout the course of the Lewinsky probe, there were virtually no court-produced public records of the numerous ancillary proceedings brought before Chief Judge Norma Holloway Johnson. Those preceeding involved matters ranging from the historically-significant assertion of executive privilege by President Bill Clinton to the more mundane battles over leaks to the media and subpoenas.


Judge Norma Holloway Johnson

Most of that material was eventually released, but portions of it remained secret for months after Clinton's Senate impeachment trial concluded ended.

Media lawyer Theodore Boutros argued that much of the material before Judge Johnson did not directly relate to grand jury matters and therefore she did not need to subject it to the court's strict rules of secrecy -- known collectively as the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e).

"The maintenance of a secret docket -- of non-secret information -- simply to prevent the press from engaging in independent efforts to gather news about matters of public importance is thus not only illogical, but also is offensive to basic notions of free speech and free press enshrined in the First Amendment," Boutros told the court.

"This situation is particularly intolerable in this circumstance, where the judicial records may be of enormous public interest and historical significance," he said.

At the heart of the dispute is the media's contention that if hearings related to grand jury investigations are not announced, the media cannot request they be conducted in open court.

Judge Johnson, who as Chief Judge oversees the grand jury's activities, rejected the argument, writing in March of 1998 that "even releasing the matters to be heard by the court runs the risk of disclosing 'matters occurring before the grand jury.'"

It was that decision that was appealed Thursday.

Judge Harry T. Edwards, chief judge of the Appeals court, sparred with Boutros, raising doubts about the media's appeal.

"Naturally the press wants everything. Next you'll come in here and say you want to sit in the grand jury room," Edwards said.

He added that District Court judges have "unfettered discretion in this area" and that he finds it "a pretty astonishing notion" that an appeals court would be asked to write a rule of procedure for a lower court.

Clinton's lawyer David Kendall and a lawyer for Independent Counsel Robert Ray attended Thursday's hearing at the invitation of the court but did not address the panel. Neither opposes the journalists' appeal, Boutros said. Ray succeeded Ken Starr as independent counsel investigating the president on several matters, including Whitewater.

A decision should be handed down sometime in the next several months.

Journalists ask court for more information on grand jury related matters

By Ted Barrett/CNN

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Thursday, December 2, 1999