News organization Buzzfeed won a legal victory Tuesday in its lawsuit fighting for the release of certain redacted sections of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report, the Associated Press reported. A federal appeals court ordered the Justice Department to unveil 10 previously hidden passages of the report, including one regarding certain people who were probed by prosecutors but did not end up facing any charges.
The Mueller report looked into possible Russian election interference and connections to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. The three-judge panel sided with a lower court judge in choosing to keep certain parts of the report redacted, the AP reported.
But other passages that the Justice Department had requested to keep hidden to protect the privacy rights of the people in question can be unveiled because the "personally identifying information alleged to be contained in the redacted passages is available elsewhere in the Report," Judge Karen Henderson said in the opinion.
"The redacted passages contain no new facts; they contain no new information or descriptions of conduct that have not been made public elsewhere in this very Report. The privacy interests, then, are not robust, as no additional reputational or stigmatizing harm can result from the disclosure of the information contained therein," the opinion added.
Other information that Buzzfeed requested should remain undisclosed because it reveals "additional facts about individuals that are not disclosed or even intimated elsewhere in the Report," Henderson wrote.
Matt Topic, the Freedom of Information Act attorney for Buzzfeed News, said that the court's decision "reaffirms the public's right to understand how the government makes important decisions."
"Unfortunately government agencies routinely violate FOIA, and it's encouraging whenever courts apply the law and hold the government to its transparency obligations," Topic said.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
In particular, the appeals court said the Justice Department must disclose redacted information about the Mueller team's decision to not prosecute an unnamed person—whom BuzzFeed contends is likely Donald Trump Jr.—for campaign finance violations.
The Mueller report explained how prosecutors looking at potential campaign finance crimes investigated a 2016 Trump Tower meeting at which Trump Jr. expected to received pejorative information about his father's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, from a Russian lawyer. Ultimately, prosecutors decided against any charges related to that meeting.
Mueller's 448-page report detailed extensive contacts between Russians and Trump associates but ultimately found insufficient evidence to charge a criminal conspiracy to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Though it identified multiple instances in which Trump sought to seize control of the Russia investigation, it did not reach a conclusion as to whether he had illegally obstructed justice.
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