New subpoenas issued in inquiry on response to 2016 Russian election interference, AP sources say

Justice Department Intensifies Investigation into Russia Election Interference and Trump Opponents

The Justice Department has escalated its Florida-based investigation into perceived adversaries of former President Donald Trump and the U.S. government’s response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, issuing a new wave of subpoenas to several individuals, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The latest round of subpoenas significantly expands the investigation’s scope. While the initial November subpoenas focused on documents from the months surrounding the January 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference, these new demands seek records spanning all years since then, according to individuals who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

This ongoing inquiry represents one of several criminal investigations the Justice Department has launched into Trump’s political opponents during his administration. Former CIA Director John Brennan, who played a key role in overseeing the 2017 intelligence assessment, has been informed by his lawyers that he is a target of the investigation, though they claim they have not been provided any “legally justifiable basis” for the probe.

The intelligence assessment at the center of the investigation was published in the final days of the Obama administration and concluded that Russia had developed a “clear preference” for Trump in the 2016 election. It determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an influence campaign designed to undermine confidence in American democracy and harm Hillary Clinton’s electoral chances.

This conclusion has remained one of Trump’s chief grievances throughout his presidency, and he has repeatedly vowed retribution against government officials involved in the Russia investigations. Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted by the Trump administration’s Justice Department last year on false statement and obstruction charges, though the case was later dismissed.

Multiple government reports, including bipartisan congressional reviews and former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, have confirmed Russia’s interference in Trump’s favor. This interference included a hack-and-leak operation targeting Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord among American voters. While Mueller’s report found that the Trump campaign welcomed Russian assistance, it did not establish direct conspiracy between Trump associates and Russian operatives.

The Trump administration’s renewed scrutiny of the intelligence assessment stems partly from the fact that a classified version incorporated a summary of the controversial “Steele dossier” in its annex. This dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele as Democratic-funded opposition research, contained unverified claims about Trump’s potential ties to Russia. Trump has frequently cited the dossier’s weaknesses to discredit the entire Russia investigation.

A declassified CIA tradecraft review ordered by Director John Ratcliffe and released in July criticized Brennan’s oversight of the assessment. While not challenging the conclusion of Russian election interference, the review faulted Brennan for including references to the Steele dossier in the classified version of the report.

Brennan has consistently maintained that he opposed citing the dossier in the intelligence assessment since neither its substance nor sources had been validated. He has stated both in congressional testimony and in his memoir that the dossier did not inform the assessment’s judgments and that the FBI had pushed for its inclusion.

However, the new CIA review attempts to cast Brennan’s position differently, claiming he “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness” and dismissed concerns about the dossier because it aligned with “existing theories.” The review quotes Brennan, reportedly without context, as having written that “my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.”

In December, Brennan’s legal team sent a letter to the chief judge of the Southern District of Florida, where the investigation is based, challenging the probe’s legitimacy. The lawyers questioned prosecutors’ basis for opening the inquiry in Florida and expressed frustration at the lack of clarity regarding what potential crimes were being investigated.

“While it is mystifying how the prosecutors could possibly believe there is any legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation, they have done nothing to explain that mystery,” the letter stated.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the ongoing investigation when contacted on Tuesday.