Finally, justice may catch up to former President Barack Obama and his White House insiders.
The Justice Department investigating the alleged wrongdoing at the FBI under the Obama administration in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.
U.S. Attorney General John Durham is no longer simply looking into the case — Attorney General William Barr is now saying the probe has become a formal criminal investigation into the Obama administration.
And there’s more…
It’s alleged that Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s soon-to-be-released brief on FBI surveillance abuses against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign will detail exactly why the probe turned into a criminal investigation.
Horowitz said Thursday that the report was coming soon — and with very little redactions.
That means the clock is ticking on Obama and company.
It remains 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 legal subpoenas, impanel a grand jury, compel witnesses to give testimony, and ultimately bring federal criminal charges.
Democrats claim that Barr has been compromised by Trump.
Democratic lawmakers leading the Trump impeachment inquiry said in a statement late Thursday that the reports “raise profound new concerns” that Barr’s DOJ “has lost its independence and become a vehicle for President Trump’s political revenge.”
“If the Department of Justice may be used as a tool of political retribution, or to help the President with a political narrative for the next election, the rule of law will suffer new and irreparable damage,” Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. and Adam Schiff, D-Calif. said.
Conservatives counter Nadler and Schiff’s claims, pointing out that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation shadowed Trump’s presidency for nearly two years — and ultimately resulted in no criminal charges against the president.
The New York Times first reported that Durham’s inquiry had become a criminal investigation.
The FBI’s counterintelligence investigation — which later became the Mueller probe — was triggered, in part, from a tip from an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer. George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser, had told Downer in May 2016 that Russia had thousands of stolen emails that would be potentially damaging to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, had learned from a Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, that Russia had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of stolen emails. The FBI’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign later morphed into part of Mueller’s probe.
The Justice Department has said Trump recently made several calls at Barr’s request to foreign leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, to help the attorney general with the Durham investigation.
Barr also traveled with Durham to Italy in August and September, and the two met with Italian intelligence officials to seek information about the activities of FBI agents assigned there, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The Associated Press contributed to this article