What Next for Mueller? Mystery Foreign Company's Rejected Subpoena Battle Raises Questions About Russia Probe Future
The Supreme Court on Monday determined it would not hear the appeal of an unidentified foreign government-owned company that is fighting a grand jury subpoena that stemmed from the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Many details about the case, like which foreign government owns the company, remain unknown. But the company has been ordered to pay around $50,000 per day in contempt of court charges for refusing to comply with the subpoena. It now owes over $2 million.
The company’s lawyers have argued that it does not have to comply with the subpoena because the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA) renders it exempt. The case was the only one from the Mueller probe to reach the Supreme Court.
“The D.C. Circuit became the first appellate court in American history to exercise criminal jurisdiction over a foreign state. Although two other circuits have previously suggested that the FSIA does not preclude an American court from exercising criminal jurisdiction over a foreign state, the ruling... represents the first time that an appellate court has taken that leap,” the company’s attorneys wrote in a petition to the Supreme Court.
The attorneys also asked whether FSIA permits an American court to impose contempt sanctions against a foreign state.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the appeal, leaving the company in contempt of the appellate court’s ruling in January, comes just days after special counsel Robert Mueller issued his final report on Russian election interference to the Department of Justice. Experts say the mystery company’s case could ultimately be determined by the fate of the special counsel’s office.
“We don’t really know what the subpoena is about. But another question, not just for the corporation but for the [Department of Justice], is whether Mueller is done, or is he going to continue is some sort of transitional capacity?” Jed Shugerman, a professor of law at Fordham University, told Newsweek. “What happens to the Special Counsel’s office in terms of these loose threads? It’s possible that [Attorney General William] Barr has the report and he could decide to drop the case against this mystery corporation, and then the contempt goes away, the fines stop, that is possible.”
“It’s also plausible that the Southern District of New York, even if Mueller does decide to drop it, says, ‘Hey, we’re actually kind of interested,’” Shugerman added.
The company has a U.S. office that is believed to be within the jurisdiction of the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors have noted that the company has “considerable business” in the U.S. and consequently cannot be protected under FSIA.