President Donald Trump may be off the hook for interfering in the 2016 election, but that doesn’t mean Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s work is finished.
On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to consider a request from a foreign-owned mystery company fighting a grand jury subpoena issued as part of the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
The company, identified in court documents as “Corporation A” owned by “Country A,” has run now out of appeals and will finally have to face the music for meddling in America’s political process.
Face the music
The justices did not explain why they refused to hear the company’s appeal, and there were no dissenting opinions among the nine-member court. The Supreme Court requires the approval of just four justices to hear a case.
Lawyers representing the overseas firm argued that the corporation could not be subject to a subpoena under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The company is entirely owned by a foreign government which contended that responding to the subpoena would break its own country’s laws.
A district court wasn’t buying the lawyers’ sovereign immunity defense and ordered the firm to respond to the subpoena or face a steep $50,000 daily fine for non-compliance. In December, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court ruling.
A month later, the anonymous company asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay of contempt freezing the financial fines. While Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to temporarily freeze the infractions, the penalties resumed just two weeks later.
Since Jan. 15, the mystery company has accrued $3.5 million in fines for failing to respond to Mueller’s subpoena.
Loose ends
Although Mueller’s two year Russia probe ended on Friday when he sent his findings to Attorney General William Barr, the special counsel left a few loose ends for the Justice Department to address. The fate of longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone will be decided in November after he was indicted on charges of lying under oath and obstructing a congressional investigation.
Andrew Miller, a former aide to Mr. Stone, is fighting a subpoena of his own. After he suffered a string of legal defeats involving his case, the special counsel informed the defendant that he is still expected “to testify before the grand jury.”
While the special counsel has been officially disbanded, the mysterious, foreign-based firm will still face justice in an American courtroom. Recently unsealed court documents show that the special counsel believes there is “a compelling need for records” from the firm.
A spokesperson from Mueller’s office told Politico that, moving forward, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington will handle the case.
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