U.S. Capitol building. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The Department of Justice on Monday seemingly pushed back on the U.S. House's claim that it needs grand jury materials from former special counsel Robert Mueller's report to determine if President Donald Trump lied during the probe.

In a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, DOJ attorneys took issue with U.S. Chief District Judge Beryl Howell's opinion saying that having access to the materials could "be helpful" to the House Judiciary Committee in considering witness testimony.

"The district court placed special emphasis on the fact that certain individuals have been convicted of lying either to Congress or to the Special Counsel in connection with events described in the Report. But the salience of that fact is unclear," Monday's filing states.

The DOJ lawyers argued that the committee has not cited a "particularized need" for grand jury information on Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn or George Papadopoulos, all of whom have pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. And they repeatedly pointed to a statement from House general counsel Douglas Letter that one specific redaction from Mueller's report in relation to Flynn could be taken "off the table."

"And the fact that those individuals made false statements does not logically suggest that the Committee has a particularized need for grand-jury information related to other witnesses," the filing states.

While the Justice Department filing did not reference it specifically or call out Trump by name, that argument provides a counter to the House's claim that the president may have been untruthful in his written answers to the special counsel, provided as part of Mueller's probe.

Letter had argued to the D.C. Circuit panel last month that the House needed the grand jury information—which has been redacted from the Mueller report under grand jury secrecy rules—to determine if Trump and others had lied.

"We have at least two people that have already been convicted of lying to Congress," Letter said to Judges Neomi Rao, Thomas Griffith and Judith Rogers at the time. "And what are they lying about? They're lying about things that go directly to the Mueller report."

In another court filing in a separate case case, over whether former White House counsel Don McGahn can be compelled to testify as part of the House's impeachment inquiry, the House specifically pointed to testimony given during Roger Stone's D.C. trial that suggested Trump wasn't entirely truthful.

House attorneys have claimed that accessing the information is a crucial component of the impeachment inquiry, and that not viewing the entire Mueller report could harm the proceedings.

The impeachment inquiry has been moving at a swift pace since Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally announced its launch at the end of September. The House Intelligence Committee will vote Tuesday evening on the release of its report on its part of the investigation.

And the House Judiciary Committee will pick up its part of the inquiry, which will include potentially drafting articles of impeachment, this week. The panel will hold its first hearing Wednesday, featuring four constitutional law scholars.

The Department of Justice spent much of the rest of Monday's filing rehashing arguments it has previously made, including that impeachment does not constitute a "judicial proceeding," one of the few times that grand jury materials can be released.

And the DOJ lawyers argued that the House had not shown a "particularized need" for the grand jury information redacted from the Mueller report.

"If the Committee had a reason to believe that a particular redaction among the remaining 2% holds information indispensable to its investigation, it was incumbent on the Committee to make that showing—and the extraordinary level of detail in the Report itself should have assisted it in doing so. But the Committee did nothing of the kind," the filing reads.

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