Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to convene a grand jury to investigate whether officials in the Obama administration committed federal crimes during their handling of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, according to a senior Trump administration official.
The official confirmed that Bondi issued a letter instructing an unnamed prosecutor to begin presenting evidence to a grand jury, though no specific charges, individuals, or jurisdictions were identified. There is currently no timeline for when the jury will convene, and proceedings may not begin for several months. Fox News was the first to report on the letter.
The development follows National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard’s explosive claims last month at a White House news conference, where she accused senior Obama officials of orchestrating a “treasonous conspiracy” against former President Donald Trump. Gabbard said she was submitting criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
“This is a dangerous political stunt,” said a former senior Justice Department official, who criticized the move. A former national security official added, “There’s no logical, rational basis for this,” noting that multiple prior investigations, including bipartisan reviews, had found no crimes by Obama-era officials.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the grand jury investigation.
Democratic lawmakers say the effort is an attempt to divert public attention from the ongoing controversy surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case. Critics on both sides of the political spectrum have targeted Trump, Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel for their handling of the matter, demanding increased transparency and the release of relevant documents.
A 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report — backed by then-chair Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. — found “irrefutable evidence” of Russian interference in the 2016 election but no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow. “What the Committee did find, however, is very troubling,” Rubio stated at the time.
According to CNN, despite those findings, Trump and his allies have maintained that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies sought to undermine his presidency by exaggerating Russia’s role and targeting his advisers. They’ve accused former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan of weaponizing investigations to hurt Trump politically. Both men have denied wrongdoing. A lawyer for Comey declined to comment.
The Trump administration’s move is the latest in a series of efforts seen by critics as attempts to reshape the narrative surrounding the 2016 election. Trump has gone as far as depicting former President Barack Obama in prison garb in AI-generated videos on social media, one showing a fictional arrest in the Oval Office.
While the Mueller investigation confirmed Russian meddling, it found no criminal conspiracy with Trump’s team. Meanwhile, special counsel John Durham’s three-year inquiry under Trump also failed to produce charges against Obama-era officials.