The ruling does not necessarily mean that the eight documents will be released. Instead, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit merely referred the matter back to a lower court to seek clarity about another judge's order.

At issue are a few dozen pages of documents that lawyers representing the Justice Department and the House hammered out in 2013, while discussing a settlement about the House's lawsuit over "Fast and Furious."

The government ultimately did not reach a settlement in those negotiations. It would take until this January for District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson to demand that the Justice Department release documents about the failed "gun-walking" operation.