Attorney General Pam Bondi has formally authorized the Department of Justice to initiate grand jury proceedings concerning the Trump-Russia collusion operation that was initially established during the Obama administration.
Bondi’s directive will initiate an official investigation with the possibility of criminal proceedings, should a grand jury determine that the evidence indicates potential crimes were committed during the Russian collusion inquiry.
Fox News has confirmed the initiation of the criminal investigation and noted that the Department of Justice is treating the matter with utmost seriousness.
“Attorney General Pam Bondi today executed an order instructing an unnamed U.S. federal prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury regarding an alleged conspiracy to connect then-2016 candidate Donald Trump with the nation of Russia,” the report stated. “FOX News has reviewed the one-page order signed by the Attorney General just hours ago. A source familiar with the investigation has also confirmed this information.”
“Although a DOJ spokesperson refrained from commenting on this investigation report, FOX has been informed that Attorney General Bondi is taking the referrals from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, quote, very seriously,” the report further elaborated. “The spokesperson indicated that Bondi perceives, quote, clear cause for deep concern, end quote, and recognizes the necessity for subsequent actions. This development comes just a few weeks after the Director of National Intelligence, as seen here, Tulsi Gabbard, submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding what she claims substantiates a conspiracy to undermine Trump’s candidacy and subsequently his first term in office.
Details regarding the criminal investigation, including the venue of the grand jury meeting and the identities of individuals expected to testify, were not disclosed at the time of the report.
The Justice Department’s action follows the recent disclosure by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard of new documents related to the Russia investigation, which suggest that the Obama administration was aware of the limited evidence available to justify an investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign for alleged Russian collusion.
At the heart of the controversy lies the now-discredited 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which was created under the directives of President Obama and influenced by Brennan, Comey, and then-DNI James Clapper. This document asserted — with “high confidence” — that Vladimir Putin had a distinct preference for Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
However, as newly declassified information reveals, this primary assertion was based on a solitary fragment from an unverified source whose connections to Putin were unclear. The authors of the ICA not only neglected to provide this context but also elevated this assertion to the principal conclusion in a report that was presented to both President Obama and President-elect Trump.
Gabbard claims that former President Barack Obama and intelligence officials purportedly advanced a “fabricated narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to assist President Trump in winning, presenting it to the American public as if it were factual. It was not.”
Among the declassified documents was a record of a meeting in which former President Obama allegedly instructed his aides to compile an intelligence assessment in December 2016, after Trump had secured the election, outlining the “methods employed by Moscow and the actions it undertook to sway the 2016 election.”
Former CIA Director John Brennan appears to have potentially committed perjury by asserting that the Steele dossier — which was financed by the Clinton campaign through a legal intermediary — was not utilized to establish an evidentiary foundation for initiating a surveillance operation against Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. Nevertheless, evidence from the Steele dossier was intentionally concealed within references in the ICA report.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has indicated that the Trump intelligence community intends to pursue indictments against individuals believed to have engaged in criminal activities during the Russiagate scandal.
“That’s why I made the referrals. DNI Gabbard has made referrals,” Ratcliffe stated candidly. “We are seeking indictments.”
Individuals identified by DNI Gabbard and CIA Director Ratcliffe as allegedly committing offenses during the Russian investigation include former DNI James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former FBI Director James Comey.
