Washington(CNN) The Democratic-led House of Representatives on Monday told the Supreme Court that the House needs secret Mueller grand jury materials to determine if there is new evidence of impeachable offenses involving President Donald Trump.
The House Judiciary Committee has been attempting obtain the documents prosecutors collected from witnesses about Trump in a back-and-forth legal fight that's now reached the Supreme Court.
"The Committee's impeachment investigation related to obstruction of justice pertaining to the Russia investigation is ongoing," Douglas Letter, the House general counsel, said in a court filing Monday.
"If this material reveals new evidence supporting the conclusion that President Trump committed impeachable offenses," Letter said, "the Committee will proceed accordingly -- including, if necessary, by considering whether to recommend new articles of impeachment."
The filing comes after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the release of the documents in March holding that the Judiciary Committee had a "compelling need" to view the secretive details prosecutors had collected from witnesses about Trump.
The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to block the release of the materials, saying it would suffer "irreparable harm" if it had to turn over the grand-jury records before the justices had decided whether to take up the appeal.
But Letter noted that the House had originally requested the information more than a year ago , and he said he feared if the court were to grant the department's request to take up the case it would be months before a decision is rendered.
"This substantial delay," Letter argued, "will seriously endanger the Committee's ability to complete its impeachment investigation during the current Congress," he said.