The official said a letter signed by Bondi instructs an unnamed federal prosecutor to begin presenting evidence to a grand jury to secure potential federal indictments. But the letter does not say what the charges would be, whom the grand jury will investigate or where it will meet.<\/p>\n
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Democratic lawmakers have accused the administration of seeking to distract attention from the Jeffrey Epstein case. Conservative media and influencers have criticized how the administration has handled the case and demand the release of more documents and information.<\/p>\n
Trump, Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have all been criticized by conservative media and influencers <\/a>over their handling of the Epstein investigation and material related to it. <\/p>\n A 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee review contradicted the idea that there was a conspiracy by the Obama administration officials against Trump, finding significant evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the acting chair of the committee at the time, signed off on the report.<\/p>\n The plans for a grand jury investigation are the latest in a series of actions by the Trump administration designed to rewrite the history of the 2016 election and seek retribution against those whom Trump accuses of trying to sabotage his first term in the White House.<\/p>\n Democratic lawmakers and former senior officials say Trump and his deputies have used the tools of government authority to try to \u201crewrite\u201d <\/a>the history of the 2016 election, seeking to reverse an eight-year-old assessment <\/a>that Russia waged an information war to boost Trump\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n Trump and his supporters have long claimed that intelligence and law enforcement officials sought to undermine his first term by overstating Russia\u2019s interference in the 2016 election and investigating Trump\u2019s aides over their possible contacts with Moscow. <\/p>\n They have accused former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan of using the probes to undermine Trump.<\/p>\n A lawyer for Comey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Comey and Brennan, who is a paid contributor to NBC News and MSNBC, have denied wrongdoing. <\/p>\n The intelligence community\u2019s analysis of the 2016 election and subsequent government investigations failed to satisfy the far-right and far-left sides of the American political divide.<\/p>\n A probe by special counsel Robert Mueller found that Russia intervened in 2016 to undercut Hillary Clinton. But it did not find evidence that the Trump team colluded with the Kremlin, as some voices on the left had suggested.<\/p>\n At the same time, the special counsel Trump appointed in his first term, John Durham, disappointed far-right activists with his three-year investigation. <\/p>\n Durham found no criminal conspiracy among Obama administration officials to fabricate intelligence about Russia\u2019s actions in 2016. He also filed no charges against the intelligence officers who oversaw a 2017 assessment that found Russia had tried to skew the election outcome in Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250723-tulsi-gabbard-ew-247p-f81f50.jpg\")
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard at a news briefing at the White House on July 23.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds \/ AFP – Getty Images<\/p>\n