Next potential federal grand jury EDA indictment date is October 15

The Virginia State Police deferred to the FBI as the lead agency in the April 16 search of the EDA’s offices. That search came just over two weeks after both the State and Federal level grand juries looking into our EDA had been empanelled. The U.S. Western District of Virginia Federal Grand Jury will remain empanelled for a year, as will the state-led local grand jury which has been granted a six-month term extension through March 31, 2020. Royal Examiner File Photo/Roger Bianchini

According to the Clerk’s Office of the Western District of Virginia Federal Court in Harrisonburg, their grand juries are empanelled in April for a term of one year. Those grand juries explore alleged federal crimes in all the counties of the district, rather than isolated specific inquiries.

So the federal grand jury that would be looking into violations of federal law regarding the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority financial fraud situation is still empanelled. It is being presided over by Judge Joel Hoppe.

According to the clerk’s office the only way to know whether a federal grand jury will hand down indictments on a specific investigation is when those indictments come down. Meeting dates for the Harrisonburg Western District Grand Jury are first and third Tuesdays of the month, though the October 1 meeting has been canceled the clerk’s office said.

So the next potential date when federal indictments could be issued regarding the investigation of the Front Royal-Warren County EDA is October 15. Sources indicate that when specific case indictments come at the federal level, they are likely to come all at once, rather than in a series as has been the case with the special grand jury led by the Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and VSP.

Stay tuned for any announcements from Harrisonburg at that time.