The Justice Department is demanding testimony before a Florida grand jury in an investigation into whether intelligence officials conspired against President Trump. New subpoenas for former government officials are meant to lock down sworn grand jury testimony.
Prosecutors are pursuing a theory that intelligence officials who scrutinized Trump over the past decade, including over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, conspired against him and violated his rights. The work has focused on the U.S. response to that interference and a 2017 intelligence assessment on whether Russia acted to help Trump at Putin’s direction.
Investigators have already conducted numerous voluntary interviews. Lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan say they have been told he is a target in an examination of whether he gave false testimony to Congress. Last spring, the Justice Department briefly sought Washington grand jury testimony in that Brennan inquiry, then withdrew the subpoenas in favor of voluntary interviews.
The current case is being run from Fort Pierce, Florida, the courthouse of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. In April, the department brought back former Reagan-era prosecutor Joe diGenova as a counselor to Attorney General Pam Bondi to help lead the team. diGenova had earlier asked Bondi to appoint him to the job and has publicly said Trump was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy. Investigators have also sought interviews with officials involved in the 2022 FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Brennan’s lawyers asked Florida’s chief judge to keep the case from being steered to Cannon and have sued to preserve records so they can later challenge any prosecution as vindictive and selective.
