Supreme Court will not intervene in mystery grand jury fight

The Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon denied a request to block a lower court order regarding a subpoena in a case that remains a mystery to most observers.

The subpoena, which is being kept under seal along with the other details of the case, which is thought to be tied to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

The Supreme Court said the stay request that was first submitted to Chief Justice John Roberts and referred by him to the full court has been denied.

{mosads}Roberts earlier this month agreed to put on hold a district court order that held an unnamed company in contempt and imposed a “fixed monetary penalty” that was set to increase each day the corporation failed to comply with the subpoena until further order from the court. The Supreme Court on Tuesday, however, vacated that order, forcing the company to comply with the subpoena.

The order was not not signed nor was it accompanied by any noted dissents. It takes five justices to agree to a stay request.

The federal grand jury subpoena, which is being kept under seal along with related court filings, seeks information from a corporation owned by a foreign government, known in court filings only as “Country A.”

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the order holding the company in contempt despite the company’s arguments that it was immune from the subpoena under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FISA) and that the subpoena is unreasonable and oppressive because it would force the corporation to violate domestic law.

The order comes just hours after the Supreme Court announced it had received a request for permission to file an appeal in the matter under seal. The request said redacted versions would be filed on the public record.

–Updated at 4:10 p.m.