California Conservative

NRO’s Byron York is reporting that Lawyers representing a co-defendant of indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay intend on seeking a subpoena of a copy of the film “The Big Buy.” Here’s Mr. York’s reporting:

The letter, from attorney Jonathan D. Pauerstein, continues, “I don’t know whether you [Birnbaum] will oppose such a subpoena. In any case, the purpose of this letter is to ask that you ensure that all such footage is preserved and not lost, destroyed, erased, or filmed over, pending the resolution of our effort to obtain a subpoena and any efforts by you or others to oppose that subpoena.”

I’m betting that Mr. Pauerstein is looking to see whether Earle said something that indicates the grand jury investigation is a scam.

The Big Buy also includes video shot inside the Travis County grand-jury room, as well as inside Earle’s office during a meeting of the district attorney’s staff. Last week, Birnbaum told NRO that Earle had granted the filmmakers “extraordinary access” to the investigation.

Here’s what the University of Dayton Law School says about grand juries:

– Since grand jury proceedings are secret, grand juries meet in private, which means they usually meet in areas that are not accessible to the public.

– A number of states have laws which declare that grand juries must meet in areas that are private; a New Mexico statute, for example, says that all grand jury deliberations “will be conducted in a private room outside the hearing or presence of any person other than the grand jury members.”

– To ensure that grand jury proceedings remain secret, a number of state laws require that private rooms be made available for their sessions. Kentucky & North Dakota statutes, for example, put the burden on county officials to provide private grand jury rooms; Texas places this obligation on the county sheriff, while Mississippi puts it on the Attorney General.

If I find out more about any aspect of this, I’ll keep you posted. At this point, though, it’s safe to say that someone somewhere is investigating how much access was granted to this film crew. I’m betting that that investigation is giving Mr. Earle alot of heartburn.

Cross-posted at BoxerWatch

RELATED:
Earle Reveals Third Grand Jury
Had Refused DeLay Indictment
It’s Official: Earle Investigation is a Farce
What a Joke: Delay Indictment Deux
Democrats Demonizing DeLay

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2005 at 9:42 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Law, Liberals, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.