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 Trump to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, Bondi has reportedly directed her staff to act on it.
According to Fox News Digital, the Attorney General personally ordered a federal prosecutor to initiate legal proceedings and present department evidence to a grand jury, which could pave the way for a potential indictment.
While the department declined to comment, such a move would raise the stakes in the administration’s attack over the so-called “Russiagate” scandal.
However, Obama and others have branded the claims against them as an “outrageous” attempt to divert attention from the firestorm Trump has faced over his links to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“The bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” Obama said in a rare rebuke last month.
“Nothing in the document issued last week 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 engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” to rig Trump’s 2016 election victory emerged last month when Gabbard declassified emails that she said showed Obama officials had engaged in a “years-long coup” against Trump.
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.”
Gabbard also submitted a raft of criminal referrals targeting Obama, former CIA director John Brennan, and ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
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.
“The president wants to see justice served, and he trusts the attorney general and the Department of Justice to implement that justice and hold these people accountable,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said last week.
But if the department moves forward with a grand jury probe, it is unclear who would be targeted or 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 by Obama, should the administration seek to prosecute him.
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