US preparing subpoenas related to 2016 Russia election-interference intelligence, sources say

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal prosecutors are preparing grand jury subpoenas to investigate Obama-era intelligence officials who produced an assessment finding Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a bid to help Donald Trump, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The grand jury subpoenas will request a broad swath of records, including paper or digital documents, text messages and emails associated with the preparation of the Intelligence Community’s January 2017 assessment, said the two sources, who were granted anonymity to speak because grand jury matters are secret.

Reuters could not determine whether the subpoenas have been issued or to whom they will be directed.

The investigation is being led by Jason Reding Quinones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who was sworn into the job in August and vowed to “restore impartial justice” – an apparent nod to President  Trump’s repeated complaint that the Justice Department under prior administrations was weaponized against him.

Quinones’ office is also in the early stages of reviewing documents from the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who prosecuted Trump for retaining classified records in his Florida estate and trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, the sources added.  Both cases against Trump were dismissed after he won reelection in November 2024.

TRUMP HAS LONG BEMOANED ‘RUSSIA HOAX’

Trump has long complained about the Justice Department’s investigations into his 2016 campaign, which he often refers to as the “Russia hoax,” and Smith’s two subsequent investigations into him after he departed the White House in January 2021. He has called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate and prosecute his enemies. 

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, over the summer, made a criminal referral related to the January 2017 intelligence assessment after she declassified documents that she said, without evidence, showed a  “treasonous conspiracy” in 2016 by top Obama administration officials to undermine Trump.

In response to the referral, the Justice Department said it was forming a strike force to review her evidence.

Reuters previously reported that the Justice Department had launched a criminal probe into former CIA Director John Brennan, who was there at the time the January 2017 intelligence assessment was prepared.

Brennan has previously said he was unaware of any such investigation, but believed it was politically motivated. A spokesperson for Brennan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The January 2017 intelligence assessment found that Russia used social media disinformation, hacking, and Russian bot farms in an effort to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and bolster Trump, who won the 2016 election. The assessment determined the actual impact was likely limited and showed no evidence that Moscow’s efforts actually changed voting outcomes. 

Gabbard’s charge that then-President Barack Obama conspired to subvert Trump’s first term as president by manufacturing the 2017 intelligence assessment of Russian interference is contradicted by a CIA review ordered by Director John Ratcliffe and published on July 2, a 2018 bipartisan Senate report and declassified documents that Gabbard herself released.

The documents show that Gabbard conflated two separate Obama-era U.S. intelligence findings.

One finding concluded that Russia was not trying to hack U.S. election infrastructure to change vote counts. The second showed that Moscow was probably using cyber means to influence the U.S. political environment through information and propaganda operations, including by stealing and leaking data from Democratic Party servers.

Former FBI Director James Comey oversaw an investigation into whether Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Trump’s firing of Comey prompted then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller’s investigation dogged much of Trump’s first term. He ultimately concluded there was no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Rod Nickel)