New Subpoenas Issued in Election Probe 02/18 06:10

   The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a Florida-based 
investigation into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump and the U.S. 
government's response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential 
election, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a 
Florida-based investigation into perceived adversaries of President Donald 
Trump and the U.S. government's response to Russian interference in the 2016 
presidential election, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

   An initial wave of subpoenas in November asked recipients for documents 
related to the preparation of a U.S. intelligence community assessment that 
detailed a sweeping, multiprong effort by Moscow to help Trump defeat 
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

   Though the first subpoenas requested documents from the months surrounding 
the January 2017 publication of the Obama administration intelligence 
assessment, the latest subpoenas seek any records from the years since then, 
said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to 
discuss a nonpublic demand from investigators.

   The Justice Department declined to comment Tuesday.

   The subpoenas represent continued investigative activity in one of several 
criminal inquiries the Justice Department has undertaken into Trump's political 
opponents. An array of former intelligence and law enforcement officials have 
received subpoenas and lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan, who helped 
oversee the drafting of the assessment, have said they have been informed he is 
a target but have not been told of any "legally justifiable basis for 
undertaking this investigation."

   The intelligence community assessment, published in the final days of the 
Obama administration, found that Russia had developed a "clear preference" for 
Trump in the 2016 election and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had 
ordered an influence campaign with goals of undermining confidence in American 
democracy and harming Clinton's chance for victory.

   That conclusion -- and a related investigation into whether the 2016 Trump 
campaign colluded with Russia to sway the outcome of the election -- have long 
been among the Republican president's chief grievances, and he has vowed 
retribution against the government officials involved in the inquiries. Former 
FBI Director James Comey was indicted by the Trump administration Justice 
Department last year on false statement and obstruction charges, but the case 
was later dismissed.

   Multiple government reports, including bipartisan congressional reviews and 
a criminal investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller, have found 
that Russia interfered in Trump's favor through a hack-and-leak operation of 
Democratic emails as well as a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing 
discord and swaying American public opinion. Mueller's report found that the 
Trump campaign actively welcomed the Russian help, but it did not establish 
that Russian operatives and Trump or his associates conspired to tip the 
election in his favor.

   The Trump administration has freshly scrutinized the intelligence community 
assessment in part because a classified version of it incorporated in its annex 
a summary of the "Steele dossier," a compilation of Democratic-funded 
opposition research that was assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele 
and was provided to the FBI. That research into Trump's potential links to 
Russia included uncorroborated rumors and salacious gossip, and Trump has long 
held up its weaknesses in an effort to discredit the entire Russia 
investigation.

   The investigation in Florida appears to be part of a broader administration 
effort to revisit years-old findings and decisions from the Russia 
investigation.

   A declassified CIA tradecraft review released last July by current Director 
John Ratcliffe did not refute the conclusion of Russian election interference 
but found "multiple procedural anomalies" in the intelligence community 
assessment and chided Brennan for the fact that the classified version 
referenced the Steele dossier.

   Brennan testified to Congress, and also wrote in his memoir, that he was 
opposed to including information from the dossier in the intelligence 
assessment since neither its substance nor sources had been validated, and he 
has said the dossier did not inform the judgments of the assessment. He 
maintains the FBI pushed for its inclusion.

   The new CIA review sought to cast Brennan's views in a different light, 
asserting that he "showed a preference for narrative consistency over 
analytical soundness" and brushed aside concerns over the dossier because he 
believed it conformed "with existing theories." It quotes him, without context, 
as having stated in writing that "my bottomline is that I believe that the 
information warrants inclusion in the report."

   It is unclear whether the investigation in Florida will result in any 
criminal charges.

   In a letter last December addressed to the chief judge of the Southern 
District of Florida, Brennan's lawyers challenged the underpinnings of the 
investigation, questioning what basis prosecutors had for opening the inquiry 
in the state and saying they had received no clarity from prosecutors about 
what potential crimes were even being investigated.

   "While it is mystifying how the prosecutors could possibly believe there is 
any legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation, they have 
done nothing to explain that mystery," the lawyers wrote, describing the 
investigation as "manufactured."