Several months ago an unknown international company was outed for refusing to comply with requests for documents from special counsel Robert Mueller. The judge, in that case, decided that each day the company doesn't comply they're fined $50,000. Last week, a First Amendment group called the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, sued for information on the company itself. This week the judge found that the press did not have a right to the company's name because the Mueller grand jury is "ongoing."
"The grand jury investigation to which the underlying subpoena relates, however, is ongoing ... Redactions must thus be applied to maintain the secrecy of all matters occurring before a grand jury," the judge decided.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow read the exchange aloud where prosecutors admitted that the grand jury and the Mueller investigation is still continuing. They called it "robustly" continuing.
In the decision, the judge "goes on at length about all the reasons why it's so important that the secrecy of information before the grand jury is preserved as long as the grand jury investigation is ongoing."
It's still unclear what the company is, what they do and what their relationship is to President Donald Trump, members of his campaign or the Russian government.
In court, the company attempted to argue they didn't have to comply with the subpoena because they were a company that was owned by a foreign country. They claimed that being owned by a country means they're immune from the U.S. legal system. They've lost all appeals in trying to hide their identity.
Watch Maddow's opener explaining the details in the case below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
