WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department has launched a new investigation into one of President Donald Trump’s chief complaints. Subpoenas issued one after another in connection with U.S. government investigations Multiple officials said Friday that Russia was involved in interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A grand jury subpoena issued by the Southern District of Florida seeks documents related to the House preparations. An evaluation of the Obama administration’s intelligence agencies; The documents were released in January 2017 and detailed how Russia conducted a covert influence campaign to help Trump defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
It was not clear whether or even what criminal charges the new investigation might lead to. But its very existence underscores the extent to which Trump is close to fulfilling his pledge to seek retribution for the election interference investigation that cast a shadow before he took office in 2017 and continued to cast a pall over much of his first term.
A complete list of those who received subpoenas was not immediately available. But people familiar with the matter have revealed that some of the current, future or intended recipients are former CIA Director John Brennan, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The two men were FBI agents involved in the Russia investigation and exchanged derogatory text messages about Mr. Trump. Mr. Strzok, the head of counterintelligence, was subsequently fired, and Mr. Page, the FBI lawyer, also resigned. Up to 30 subpoenas are expected to be issued, the person said.
The Trump administration brought new scrutiny to that assessment in part because the classified version of that assessment included a summary of the Steele dossier. A compilation of opposition research funded by the Democratic Party. It was assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele and later handed over to the FBI.
The investigation into President Trump’s possible ties to Russia has included uncorroborated rumors and sordid gossip, and President Trump has long used his weaknesses to discredit the Russia investigation as a whole. It is also The Justice Department has investigated and, in some cases, indicted President Trump’s political opponents.Among them is former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Trump just months into his first term in the White House amid the Russia investigation.
Multiple government reports, including a bipartisan Congressional review and a criminal investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller, have revealed that Russia interfered in President Trump’s actions through a campaign to hack and leak Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord and swaying American public opinion. Mr. Mueller’s report found that the Trump campaign actively welcomed Russian help, but it did not prove that Russian operatives and Mr. Trump or his associates colluded to overturn the election.
Since returning to the White House, President Trump has continued to denounce the Russia investigation, and senior administration officials including FBI Director Kash Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard have supported the release of years-old documents aimed at discrediting the investigation. For example, in July, Mr. Ratcliffe released a CIA report identifying allegedly anomalous trade goods. In creating the Obama administration’s intelligence community assessment.
The report said that the inclusion of a two-page summary of the Steele dossier in the confidential annex of the intelligence assessment, a decision supported by the FBI, “implicitly elevates an unsubstantiated claim to the status of reliable supporting evidence and undermines the analytical integrity of the decision.”
