Feds move to subpoena former CIA director and others who investigated Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 campaign
Former CIA Director John Brennan arrives for a meeting at the Capitol in Washington
By Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, CNN
(CNN) — Prosecutors in Florida moved to issue subpoenas to former CIA Director John Brennan and other former officials as the Justice Department investigates the federal government’s counterintelligence investigation into Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and its contacts with Russians, sources told CNN.
The subpoenas are likely to fuel right-wing clamoring to investigate the investigators again — after special counsel John Durham and the Justice inspector general previously probed the FBI’s work on the 2016 investigation known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Subpoenas were scheduled to be sent to several people at intelligence agencies including the FBI and CIA who had worked on an Intelligence Community Assessment in 2017 that summarized counterintelligence on Russian attempts to interfere in the presidential election.
Former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were among those who received subpoenas, sources said, as well as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
The new investigative demands, from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, seek documents from July 2016 through February 2017.
The subpoenas ask for digital and paper records that would capture any communications around the work done by intelligence officials at the time, including their text messages, emails and computer files, sources told CNN.
The possible targets of the investigation aren’t clear from the subpoenas themselves, nor are the possible theories of criminal law Trump administration prosecutors may want to examine with a grand jury almost a decade after the records were created.
CNN has requested comment from Brennan’s lawyer, as well as lawyers for Strzok and Page.
The scope of the new probe is unclear. Actions by investigators in the 2016-2019 Trump-Russia probe would be long past the 5-year statute of limitations generally for federal crimes. However, Trump allies have argued that the current Justice Department can revisit the earlier matters as part of a broad conspiracy that has targeted Trump stretching from the Russian meddling probe to the investigation into Trump’s role in the January 6 riot and his efforts to remain in office despite losing the 2020 election, as well as the probe into classified documents he kept at his Mar-a-Lago club. The latter potentially gives prosecutors in southern Florida jurisdiction to lead the new investigation, according to people briefed on the on the matter.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
The-CNN-Wire
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