President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is escalating an investigation targeting former officials involved in examining his ties to Russia to prove an “intelligence community conspiracy” against the president.
Federal prosecutors are issuing subpoenas that will force former government officials to testify under oath about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to an exclusive Associated Press report.
“New subpoenas being issued to former government officials represent an escalation in the year-long investigation as the Justice Department pursues a loosely defined theory that members of the intelligence community who scrutinized Trump over the last decade, including over Russian interference in the 2016 election, conspired against him and violated his rights,” the AP reported Tuesday.
Investigators had previously relied on voluntary interviews. While the number and identities of the subpoena recipients remain unclear, former CIA Director John Brennan’s lawyers have said he was informed that he is a target, the report said.
Prosecutors are examining whether Brennan lied to Congress, an accusation he and his attorneys deny.
“The investigation is being run out of Florida, with the Justice Department in April bringing back into government service a top prosecutor from the Reagan administration, Joe diGenova, to serve as a counselor to the attorney general and help lead a team of agents and prosecutors,” according to the AP.
Investigators have also established operations in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is based. Brennan’s lawyers previously asked that the investigation not be steered to Cannon, describing her as a “favored” Trump judge, the report added.
Previous government investigations found mistakes in the Russia probe but no evidence that senior law enforcement officials committed crimes or participated in an anti-Trump conspiracy. But, according to the AP, that's precisely "what prosecutors are now hoping to prove."