Dell Inc. v. Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp.

Interested Non-Party John Doe l(Doe) appeals from the district court’s order denying his motion to quash a subpoena from Plaintiffs-Appellees Dell, Inc., et al. (Dell Plaintiffs) to the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (DOJ). As part of a criminal antitrust investigation into the optical disc drive industry, the FBI made secret tape recordings and transcripts of conversations among various individuals, including Doe, an employee of one of the companies being investigated. Doe, who was initially designated as a subject of the grand jury investigation hearing for the potential antitrust case, was not indicted. After the grand jury investigation concluded with corporate pleas and a settlement, the Dell Plaintiffs, in a collateral civil antitrust suit against certain optical disk drive manufacturers, subpoenaed the DOJ seeking “recordings of conversations” and “verbatim transcripts” relating to the DOJ’s investigation of those manufacturers. The FBI had made the tape recordings two months before the grand jury issued its subpoena to Doe seeking his testimony: Doe moved to quash the subsequent civil subpoena pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e), which…