Prosecutors’ Subpoena of Comey Suggests Criminal Probe Into What Trump Calls Russia Collusion ‘Hoax’ Is Gathering Speed

The issuance of a subpoena to the former FBI director James Comey puts into sharp relief the emerging wide-ranging criminal case being built by the Trump Administration against adversaries of the 47th president. The subpoena against Mr. Comey is part of a counter-investigation — led by the United States Attorney for the District of Southern Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones — into the probes, mostly during Mr. Trump’s first term of Russia’s role in the 2016 election. These probes now under investigation included the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation — launched during Mr. Comey’s directorship — as well as the special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller, who was appointed by the Trump Justice Department, much to Mr. Trump’s fury, immediately after he fired Mr. Comey. Mr. Mueller passed away last week. Current targets of the DOJ reportedly include include intelligence officials from the Obama Administration such as James Brennan and James Clapper, who went onto post-government careers as paid analysts for MSNBC and CNN respectively, where they denounced Mr. Trump with regularity.The grand jury that approved the summons directed to Mr. Comey was impaneled by Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal case against President Trump for the retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.The president’s allies contend that there was a “grand conspiracy” against Mr. Trump that roped in the allegations of Russian interference in the election as well as the two prosecutions launched by Mr. Smith. Axios reports that more than 130 subpoenas have been issued. The one against Mr. Comey relates to his alleged role in the drafting, in 2017, of the Intelligence Community Assessment concerning Russia’s election interference. That demarche included the now-discredited “Steele dossier.”That document was commissioned by an opposition research and strategic intelligence firm, Fusion GPS and paid for by Democrat presidential candidate Secretary Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. It was published by Buzzfeed, which warned that it contained “specific, unverified, and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives.” In June the current CIA director, John Ratcliffe, concluded that the inclusion of the Steele Dossier, which contained lurid and unverified allegations against Mr. Trump, “ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.” Mr. Ratcliffe referred Mr. Comey and Mr. Brennan, who was Mr. Obama’s CIA director, to the DOJ for prosecution. So far those referrals have not led to charges. Mr. Brennan testified to Congress in 2023 that he did not support including the Steele dossier in the 2017 assessment. Mr. Ratcliffe’s review found that Mr. Brennan “appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns” and that “Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing, stating that ‘my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion.”In November Mr. Trump declared that Messrs. Comey and Brennan, along with others, were part of “Obama’s Russia HOAX Treason Club.” Mr. Patel has said that “We’re going to continue to make people like Comey and Brennan and Clapper and Page and Strzok and so many others answer for what I believe are their acts of criminal conduct.” Mr. Clapper is a former director of national intelligence. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were senior FBI officials who exchanged anti-Trump messages while working on the investigations into Mr. Trump and Secretary Hillary Clinton. They were also engaged in an extramarital affair.A 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report found Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help elect Mr. Trump. Neither the committee nor Mr. Mueller, though, was able to demonstrate that Mr. Trump’s campaign cooperated, or “colluded,” with the Russians. It will be debated by historians if Russian meddling actually flipped the election in Mr. Trump’s favor.A 2023 report compiled by Special Counsel John Durham — appointed by the Trump Justice Department — harshly criticized the FBI but did not recommend criminal charges against Messrs. Brennan and Comey, who have both come under federal investigation. Mr. Mueller did not recommend that Mr. Trump be criminally charged in the wake of the 2016 vote. He wrote that “While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” Mr. Comey has faced criminal charges from Mr. Trump’s DOJ — for allegedly lying to Congress in testimony he delivered in 2020 about leaks that marred the 2016 interference investigation. Charges were handed up in that case just days before the statute of limitations was set to expire. The prosecution, though, collapsed after a judge ruled that the prosecutor in charge, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.The DOJ has appealed that ruling, which also affected the criminal case against New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. The DOJ tried to indict Ms. James on two subsequent occasions, both times without success. The government demurred from pursuing the same course with respect to Mr. Comey’s case, probably because of the issue with the statute of limitations. Mr. Smith has not been charged, though Mr. Trump has called for him to be prosecuted and declared that the prosecutor is a “criminal.” During Mr. Smith’s public testimony before Congress he was asked if he expects to be indicted. He responded that “I believe they will do everything in their power to do that because they have been ordered to by the president.”

Prosecutors’ Subpoena of Comey Suggests Criminal Probe Into What Trump Calls Russia Collusion ‘Hoax’ Is Gathering Speed

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