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View Full Version : O.T. Is Grand Jury testimony held confidential once Jury is dismissed?


bobswire
02-13-2012, 09:25 AM
Is Grand Jury testimony held confidential once Jury is dismissed, since Grand Juries are able to get testimony that otherwise would be next to impossible in other venues.
I would prefer to hear from someone with knowledge on this subject (in other words keep "biased"opinions to yourself ;) ).

This is not an open discussion on Lance Armstrong,I'm only curious about the closing of a Grand Jury and what happens to testimony that was gathered. Is it available to public or private scrutiny or is it sealed?

Re-edit
From my searches this seems to be a murky subject that is handled case by case for criminal purposes. But could WADA or USADA be able to use it hoping to to make a case?

Fed. R. Cri. P. 6(e)(C)(i) permits disclosure of grand jury testimony "when so directed by a court preliminarily to or in connection with a judicial proceeding." The court may direct the manner, time and conditions of such disclosure. There are two related but independent prerequisites to a disclosure under the (C)(i) exemption. First, there is a court imposed "criterion of degree" called the particularized need test.42 Second, the 'judicial proceeding' language of (C)(i) imposes an additional criterion governing the kind of need that must be shown."43

Walter
02-13-2012, 01:18 PM
As a policy, fed courts guard the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. It will take a court order pursuant to the rule you cited to get it released. Things are not automatically made public just because the investigation is now closed.

The particularized need requirement is one that is stringently enforced. No fishing expeditions allowed.

My suspicion is that it will be hard if not impossible to get it opened up for administrative proceedings.