Legal analyst on Faux says that grand jury can be extended to 36 months

on Greta Van Sustren. he said that the Plame grand jury was only extended to 24 monts. so this particular grand jury has 12 months to go.

A Special Grand Jury can be empaneled for 36 months. A Federal Grand Jury is 24 months, which I think gives Fitz 3 more months.

that's what he said. he was a former prosecutor who was probably misinformed.

Is this a Grand Jury or a Special Grand Jury? What is the difference?
After everyone working for weeks under the assumption that this was a special grand jury, based on media reports, yesterday's article in the WaPo revived that question for me. Since there has been no sourcing in any of the articles thus far, I decided to take matters into my own hands and called the Federal District Court Clerk's Office for the DC Circuit this morning. Amazing how such a little thing as the telephone can prove so useful, isn't it?

As it turns out, this is a regular old Grand Jury. The Clerk with whom I spoke told me that "no special Grand Jury is seated at this point" in the DC Circuit. (Am trying to not read into tea leaves that perhaps one could be seated shortly, and just take that as a no special grand jury at present, thanks.)

What this means in terms of the term of the grand jury is this: a regular grand jury has a normal term of 18 months. A special grand jury has a normal term of up to 36 months, if all extensions are requested.

However, and this is a big however for this case, a regular grand jury may also be extended for up to 6 months at the approval of the presiding judge.

Rule 6(g) Discharging the Grand Jury. A grand jury must serve until the court discharges it, but it may serve more than 18 months only if the court, having determined that an extension is in the public interest, extends the grand jury’s service. An extension may be granted for no more than 6 months, except as otherwise provided by statute.

So, perhaps, Friday isn't the end of this particular jury after all. The determining factor is that the extension be in the "public's best interest," which in this case arguably would be based on the late-disclosed information due to refusals to testify (*cough*Judy*cough), obstruction issues, and the late-breaking "come to Jesus" moments that Jeralyn has so aptly described.

snip>

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/10/untying-few-legal-knots.html

They had an article on grand juries with a paragraph on Cooper and Miller. In that paragraph there was a statement that the Plame grand jury was a special Fed grand jury.

I just checked the site and the Cooper/Miller paragraph has been removed. So.... :shrug:

There has been a lot of confusion. :hi:

GJ extension (none / 1)

I can't take credit for this...courtesy of NYBri over at Booman Tribune:

Here is the entire post with link:

I am posting this as a public service to clarify any confusion anyone may have about whether Fitz can extend the present Grand Jury. It seems he can according to The University of Dayton Law School:

Grand jury's term

Federal grand juries are of two types--regular and special. Regular grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, but that term can be extended up to another 6 months, which means their total possible term is 24 months. Special grand juries sit for 18 months, but their term can be extended for up to another 18 months; a court can extend a special grand jury's term for 6 months, and can enter up to three such extensions, totaling 18 months.


Note that this is a special grand jury, not a regular grand jury.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/27/23498/262

But then again - do we really know this is a 'special' GJ rather than a regular GJ? Just because Fitz is a special prosecutor that doesn't mean it is a special GJ. I wish someone in MSM would get this right.

It now appears that there will be a grand jury in place while Rove slowly twists in the wind.

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