Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to open a grand jury investigation into allegations that the Obama administration engaged in a conspiracy to subvert the 2016 election.
Weeks after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a trove of documents alleging Obama officials conspired to “manipulate” intelligence to link Donald Trump to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, Bondi has directed her Justice Department to act on it.
The Attorney General has ordered a federal prosecutor to initiate legal proceedings and present department evidence to a federal grand jury.
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This could pave the the way for a potential indictment against key officials who served under the former president, including former FBI director James Comey, former CIA director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
“Following the compelling case outlined by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, which exposed clear and blatant weaponization by corrupt intelligence officials acting at the behest of the Democrat Party and likely former President Obama, the Administration remains committed to conducting a thorough investigation,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
“This effort aims to provide the American people with the truth about the extent to which former government officials worked to sabotage the Trump administration and undermine the will of the American people in a clear attempt to subvert our Constitutional Republic.”
The opening of a federal grand jury probe would raise the stakes in the administration’s attack over the so-called “Russiagate” scandal.
However, Obama and others have branded the administration’s claims as an “outrageous” attempt to divert attention from the firestorm President Donald Trump has faced over his links to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“The bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” Obama’s office said in a rare rebuke through last month.
“Nothing in the document issued... undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.”
The claim that Obama and his members of his cabinet engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” to rig Trump’s 2016 election victory and undermine his first-term agenda emerged last month.
According to Gabbard, officials tried to bury intelligence in the final weeks of the Obama administration and then manufacture an alternative assessment of a Russian influence campaign on American voters.
“Their goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people,” Gabbard wrote on social media. “No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Trump, who has claimed for years that the investigation into Russian interference was a “hoax”, embraced the findings and even posted an AI-generated video of Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.
But if the department moves forward with a grand jury probe, it is unclear what charges could even be laid, given that the activity in question took place almost a decade ago. This means that some statutes of limitations may have lapsed.
The conservative-dominated Supreme Court also recently ruled that presidents should have substantial immunity for acts committed in office. This ruling could now be used to protect Obama, should the administration seek to prosecute him.
Asked about this last month, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the president wanted “those who perpetuated these lies and this scandal to be held accountable.”
“As for what accountability looks like,” she said, “it’s in the Department of Justice’s hands and we trust them to be successful.”
The Justice Department declined to comment.
