So Mueller is starting to use a DC grand jury to subpoena people in his ongoing investigation. Many are making a big deal about this, although I’m not exactly sure why.
But AIUI grand jury proceedings are secret. The interest in what happens during these is going to be extremely strong. Is there any way in which transcripts or reports of the proceedings can be legally obtained and published? If not, will there be leaks to the media about what progressed? If there are leaks, should/will the leakers be investigated and perhaps punished?
If the grand jury testimony leads to indictments will there be some way to tell what happened in the grand jury proceedings? Is grand jury testimony often presented as part of a later trial? (I.e., “When you testified in front of the grand jury you said X; now you are saying Y. Were you lying then or are you lying now?” Or, “In the grand jury, you said Z. What did you mean by that?”)
Woodward and Bernstein almost got into trouble for trying to find and interview the grand jurors in the watergate case. Judge Sirica found out and gave the media a severe talking-to in chambers, without identifying who the reporters were. (It wasn’t clear if he knew it was W&B but didn’t name them because he lacked proof, or if he just knew that some reporters were nosing around and didn’t know who.)
I am currently serving on a civil grand jury (looking into the efficiency and effectiveness of city and county government, not criminal investigations). We take an oath to maintain confidentiality of everything that happens in jury meetings, interviews, etc. (I call it the Cone of Silence). Violation is a misdemeanor and grounds for dismissal from the jury.
The reason for this is to protect information sources who might be vulnerable to retaliation. For example, if we interview someone who we will identify in the report as “an assistant in X department,” we have to interview several people who could be described that way so that the boss of X department won’t be able to tell which one spilled the beans.
People we interview also are admonished to keep the contents of the interview (both questions and answers) confidential, although we can’t really enforce that.
I can tell you that the court under whose jurisdiction we operate takes this very seriously, and as a result so do we.