Supreme Court Rejects Company in Case Linked to Mueller

After Chief Justice Roberts places a hold, the justices Tuesday declined to block a federal appeals court ruling. The appeals court upheld daily fines. Growing at $50,000 a day against the company, owned by an unidentified foreign Country A, for failing to comply with a grand jury subpoena.The latest order lifts the hold Chief Justice John Roberts had placed on the appeals court ruling while the Supreme Court considered the matter. There were no published dissents. Chief Justice Roberts hold and review was abnormal in legal realms. Which casts even more mystery in the whole investigation.

The order came hours after the court’s website indicated the company was poised to file an appeal of the ruling. The court’s online docket shows a new filing that that seeks permission to file that appeal under seal, with redacted copies have been made for public access. The grand jury dispute has been shrouded in mystery to begin with, in part because officials closed an entire floor of a federal courthouse in Washington during arguments on Dec. 7. 

The appeals court order, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, rejected contentions that a federal sovereign-immunity law shielded the company from having to comply. Although the appeals court issued judgment in December, it released an opinion Tuesday. A concurring opinion by Judge Stephen Williams offered new hints about the identity of the company. Williams said that the company has an American office where the subpoena was served and that prosecutors contend the company conducts "considerable business" in the U.S. So the company will not be able to use sovereign-immunity.

Special FBI Investigator Robert Mueller might be seeking information that is currently overseas. The company already contends it doesn’t have "documents responsive to the subpoena in the United States." So there was no denial of having the documents but that they were not within the U.S..