Reading Room Document

Effect of the Patriot Act on Disclosure to the President and Other Federal Officials of Grand Jury and Title III Information Relating to National Security and Foreign Affairs

The Patriot Act amendments to the confidentiality provisions in Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and 18 U.S.C. § 2517 (part of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968) did not change this Office's prior opinions that these provisions are subject to an implied exception where disclosure of information is necessary to permit the President to discharge his constitutional responsibilities for national security under Article II. The decision to disclose such information to other Executive Branch officials is a matter for the President himself to determine. He may delegate that authority to others—including by an oral direction—but officials such as the Attorney General may not exercise an inherent constitutional power of the President to disclose such information to others without some direction from the President. The Patriot Act amended Rule 6(e) and Title III to provide that matters involving foreign intelligence or counterintelligence or foreign intelligence information may be disclosed by any attorney for the government (and in the case of Title III, also by an investigative or law enforcement officer) to certain federal officials in order to assist those officials in carrying out their duties. Although the new provision in Rule 6(e) requires that any such disclosures be reported to the district court responsible for supervising the grand jury, disclosures made to the President fall outside the scope of the reporting requirement contained in that amendment, as do related subsequent disclosures made to other officials on the President's behalf. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/20611/download.

July 22, 2002