The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal probe regarding the origins of the FBI investigation of Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, Fox reports referring to a source familiar with the matter.
A month-long review, which was launched by Attorney General William Barr, to inquire about the origins of the failed investigation – known as ‘Russiagate’ and repeatedly denounced by the US president, Donald Trump, as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” – has thus been transformed into a criminal investigation.
If these reports are confirmed, this would give the Department of Justice officials more influence in their realization, such as the power to cite potential witnesses and file criminal charges. It is still unclear whether a grand jury has been summoned for the case, the agency cites its source.
Barr ordered in May the review of the so-called ‘Russiagate’ and appointed John Durham, US prosecutor from Connecticut, to carry out that investigation.
The review focused on determining whether the FBI and other agencies that brought Russia’s investigation to life violated the law with its intelligence-gathering methods, even by obtaining a wiretap order to monitor Trump’s former advisor, Carter Page. That order, as determined later, was partially based on the controversial ‘Steele Dossier’, which remained uncorroborated at that time and in general is not verifiable.
Former special prosecutor Robert Mueller last March ended the ‘Russiagate’ investigation, unable to find evidence of any interference from Moscow in the 2016 US presidential elections.
