Mueller's media contacts to be public by September

Robert Mueller

Thousands of government documents that should reveal the details of special counsel Robert Mueller's contacts with the media – even though that may seem unusual since he's running a secret investigation – now are scheduled to become public by early September.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan Thursday gave the government until Sept. 4 to provide thousand of documents that already have been identified under a Freedom of Information Act case.

Washington watchdog Larry Klayman of FreedomWatch sued to obtain access to Mueller's communications with the media, and the hearing was to respond to his request for the documents.

The government had wanted to start producing a stack of responsive documents in July and then provide about 1,000 pages a month until the project was done, possibly long into 2019.

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The government lawyers confirmed there are about 9,000 pages at issue.

And they pointed out the roadblock has been that the special counsel's office has "to look at everything before it goes out the door."

The judge said he's sensitive to the fact there are limited resources, but the documents already have been identified.

"The final date for production will be September the 4th," he stated.

Klayman told WND it was a good result, even though it would have been better to have them earlier.

The documents on Mueller's contact with media will come from the special counsel's office, the Department of Justice and the FBI.

Klayman had filed with the federal court a document contesting the government's plan "to drag out and slow roll production of documents, which by any stretch of the imagination cannot be exempt under FOIA" because they "concern communication with the media."

He suspects they "are likely to reveal grand jury leaks and other improper disclosure of information by the special counsel in its Russian collusion and related investigations."

"The public has a right to have these documents timely, not a year or years from now, well after the fact," Klayman argued. "They will likely show improper leaks of grand jury and other information and even bear on a related case before your honor."

Klayman filed the lawsuit, which followed a FOIA request, against Mueller and his staff, "who are alleged to have illegally leaked grand jury information to damage the president, his family and associates, have thus far been untouched by the inept and inert Justice Department, run by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who appears afraid that he himself may be indicted by Mueller for alleged Russian collusion and obstruction of justice."

Klayman's response was to an admission from the government that Mueller's office alone has found more than 9,000 potentially responsive pages of information about leaks to the media. The government then proposed not producing anything until mid-July and then producing them "periodically."

Klayman, who served with the Department of Justice, had warned: "Freedom Watch is not afraid and is doing the job of my former alma mater, which has regrettably become the 'Department of Prosecutorial Misconduct and Injustice.' I will not rest until Robert Mueller and his partisan leftist prosecutors are removed and replaced with an honest and ethical special counsel and staff, who will not abuse their authority for political purposes, but instead expeditiously conduct and conclude this Russian collusion investigation on the merits before more harm is done to the nation."

His lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, is against Mueller, the DOJ and the FBI.

Klayman had asked for "any and all documents and records … that refer or relate with regard to communications to and from the media, domestic and foreign, concerning the activities of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and/or his staff as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, concerning the investigation of alleged Russian collusion and related matters concerning the Trump presidential campaign and the Trump transition team with the print, Internet, social media and radio and television networks."

He previously filed complaints with the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and inspector general demanding an investigation into allegations of incessant criminal grand jury leaks by Mueller and his staff, as well as their conflicts of interest "as Democrat partisans bent on destroying the Trump presidency."

The agencies ignored his requests, so he filed suit asking a federal court to order that OPR and IG proceed with the ethics investigation.

Klayman's activism has spanned decades.

He sued the National Security Agency and won in district court. He sued to get Barack Obama's birth certificate. He sued Hugo Chavez on behalf of torture victims. He sued journalists. He sued the Taliban and al-Qaida. He sued Cuba and won a multimillion-dollar judgment. He sued to get then-President Obama deported.