US Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered prosecutors to initiate legal proceedings regarding allegations that Donald Trump’s political opponents conspired to falsely accuse him of colluding with Russia before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors plan to present evidence to a grand jury, a panel of citizens that will decide if formal charges should be pursued, but it remains unclear what the charges might be or who could face them.
Elected president in 2016 by defeating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump has consistently accused political adversaries of smearing him with the so-called Russiagate claims.
In the previous month, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused former President Barack Obama and his national security team of orchestrating a “years-long coup” against Trump. Gabbard claimed the Obama White House politicized intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election to falsely link Trump with Russia.
Trump responded by accusing Obama of “treason,” which an Obama representative labeled “bizarre.”
Democrats maintain nothing in Gabbard’s claims negated a 2017 US intelligence assessment that Russia sought to harm Clinton’s campaign and boost Trump. A bipartisan 2020 Senate report also affirmed Russia tried to assist Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Fox News reported that former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey were under criminal investigation related to the Trump–Russia probe. Both deny wrongdoing and accuse Trump of undermining the justice system.
Trump’s first presidency was notably impacted by an investigation from his justice department into potential conspiracy with Russia to influence the 2016 election. The Mueller report found no evidence of Trump or his campaign coordinating with the Kremlin, resulting in no charges.
The Russiagate debate resurfaced when a declassified appendix from another justice department investigation was released, citing a 2016 memo from a US intelligence source claiming Hillary Clinton approved a plan to associate Trump with Russia.
The memo referenced emails allegedly obtained by Russian intelligence hackers from a George Soros-run non-profit employee. One purported email, possibly from Leonard Benardo of Open Society Foundations, mentioned a Clinton adviser, Julianna Smith, and discussed plans to demonize Putin and Trump. The authenticity of the emails remains uncertain, and no proof was found by Durham of an FBI conspiracy.
Durham’s main 306-page report, released in 2023, criticized the initial FBI investigation into Trump’s campaign for lacking “analytical rigor” and depending on “raw, unanalysed and uncorroborated intelligence.”
US officials concluded that Russian interference in 2016 involved social media bot farms and Democratic email hacking, but the overall impact likely didn’t alter the election outcome.