The Department of Justice is preparing to issue a series of grand jury subpoenas as part of a South Florida-based investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan and the probes by the CIA and FBI into Russian interference in the 2016 election, MSNBC has learned.
The investigation is being supervised by the U.S. attorney in South Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, in consultation with Justice Department senior staff in Washington, according to a source familiar with the matter and other information obtained by MSNBC.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
The Florida-based inquiry comes two years after a special counsel appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr concluded a lengthy and exhaustive investigation that found no criminal wrongdoing by Brennan or any other major figure connected with the Russian election interference matter. Barr had appointed the special counsel in late 2020, during the first Trump administration.
A White House spokesman confirmed the existence of the grand jury investigation in August after Fox News reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the probe based on a criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
The fact that subpoenas are being prepared has not previously been reported. Among the topics of interest in the new investigation is the preparation of the 2017 intelligence assessment into Russian election interference. That also was investigated by special counsel John Durham, who found no wrongdoing in its preparation.
Conservative attorney Mike Davis, who advises the White House and the Justice Department, has said in recent weeks that a Florida grand jury will consider whether top Obama and Biden officials engaged in a massive conspiracy to violate Donald Trump’s civil rights through the Russia investigations and the probes by special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump was charged federally in two separate cases brought by Smith, both of which were dismissed when he became president. No evidence has surfaced publicly of wrongdoing in those probes or the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, other than by an FBI lawyer in the Russia investigation who pleaded guilty in 2020 to falsifying a document related to surveillance of a Trump campaign aide.
But Trump and his allies have for years claimed that the FBI and Justice Department conspired with Democrats to frame him.
Brennan, an MSNBC national security contributor, has denied wrongdoing. He has separately been accused by the House Judiciary Committee of lying to Congress, an allegation he also disputes.
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW.