Report: Justice Department issues series of subpoenas in new investigation into Trump-Russia probe

The grand jury subpoenas issued from the Southern District of Florida seek documents related to the preparation of the Obama administration’s intelligence community assessment, made public in January 2017, detailing how Russia conducted a covert influence campaign to help Trump defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

It was unclear whether the new investigation could lead to criminal charges or even what criminal allegation was being considered. But its very existence underscores the extent to which Trump is determined to make good on his promise to seek retaliation for an election interference investigation that followed him before he took office in 2017 and continued to shadow much of his first term. It also comes as the Justice Department has investigated and, in some cases, prosecuted Trump’s political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump months into his first term in the White House amid the Russia investigation.

via News

The full list of people who were receiving subpoenas was not immediately known. But a person familiar with the matter identified some of the current, future or intended recipients as former CIA Director John Brennan, as well as Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two FBI employees who were involved in the Russia investigation and who exchanged derogatory text messages about Trump. Strzok, a top counterintelligence agent, was later fired and Page, an FBI lawyer, resigned. Up to 30 citations were expected to be issued, the person said.

The Trump administration has recently scrutinized the intelligence community’s assessment in part because a classified version of it incorporated a summary of the “Steele dossier,” a collection of Democratic-funded opposition research that was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and then turned over to the FBI. That investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russia included uncorroborated rumors and salacious gossip, and Trump has long maintained his weaknesses in an effort to discredit the entire Russia investigation.

Multiple government reports, including bipartisan congressional reviews and a criminal investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller, have found that Russia interfered with Trump’s behavior through a Democratic email hacking and leak operation, as well as a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord and influencing American public opinion. Mueller’s report found that the Trump campaign actively welcomed Russian aid, but did not establish that Russian agents and Trump or his associates conspired to tip the election in his favor.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has continued to criticize the Russia investigation, and senior administration officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, have defended the release of years-old documents aimed at trying to discredit the investigation.

That report said that the inclusion of a two-page summary of the Steele dossier in a classified annex to the intelligence community’s assessment – a decision prompted by the FBI – “implicitly elevated unsubstantiated claims to the status of credible supporting evidence, compromising the analytical integrity of the ruling.”