Trump backs new focus for Russia probe
WASHINGTON — Investigating the investigators, the Justice Department is now scrutinizing the government’s Russia probe as a criminal matter, raising Democrats’ concerns that President Trump may be using federal muscle to go after his opponents. Trump says to expect the probe to reveal “really bad things.”
Trump declared anew on Friday that the nowconcluded special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was a “hoax” designed to discredit his presidency.
Word of the criminal investigation comes as Trump is facing the separate House impeachment inquiry examining whether he withheld military aid to pressure the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation of political foe Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The person who confirmed the shift in the Justice investigation to a criminal probe spoke to the Associated Press only on the condition of anonymity.
It is unclear what potential crimes are being investigated or what prompted the change. But the designation as a formal criminal investigation gives prosecutors the ability to issue subpoenas, empanel a grand jury, compel witnesses to give testimony and bring federal criminal charges.
The Justice Department had previously considered it to be an administrative review, and Attorney General William Barr appointed John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to lead the inquiry into the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. It’s unclear when Durham’s inquiry shifted to a criminal investigation.
Asked about the investigation on Friday, Trump said, “I can’t tell you what’s happening,” but “I will tell you this: I think you’re going to see a lot of really bad things. I think you’ll see things that nobody would have believed.”
Durham is examining what led the U.S. to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign and the roles that various countries played in the U.S. probe. He is also investigating whether the surveillance and intelligence gathering methods used during the investigation were legal and appropriate.