Hold onto your hats, folks—subpoenas are flying in Florida as a federal grand jury digs into the murky origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
A sweeping Justice Department probe, overseen by U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida, has targeted former CIA Director John Brennan, ex-FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and others with subpoenas over their roles in the contentious "Crossfire Hurricane" operation and related intelligence activities, Fox News reported.
This latest chapter, with subpoenas issued on a recent Friday and up to 30 more expected soon, signals a no-holds-barred effort to uncover whether misconduct or false statements tainted the early days of the Trump-Russia narrative.
Let’s rewind to July 2016, when Strzok, then a top FBI counterintelligence agent, kicked off "Crossfire Hurricane" to probe potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Just days before, Brennan briefed top Obama administration officials, including the then-president and vice president, on intelligence suggesting the Clinton campaign was crafting a plan to tie Trump to Russian election meddling—a tidbit later passed to Strzok and FBI leadership.
By July 31, the FBI had officially launched its investigation, setting the stage for years of political firestorms and, ultimately, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, which found no criminal conspiracy between Trump’s team and Russia by March 2019.
Fast forward to 2017, when the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) alleged Russian efforts to aid Trump in 2016, a report now criticized in a declassified “lessons learned” review for procedural oddities and rushed conclusions.
Brennan, despite internal CIA pushback labeling the Steele dossier as “internet rumor,” insisted on its inclusion, writing, “my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report,” as noted in the CIA review.
That dossier, funded by the Clinton campaign and the DNC through Fusion GPS, was later discredited for unverified claims, yet found its way into a footnote of the ICA and underpinned FISA warrants against Trump aide Carter Page—warrants a 2019 Justice Department report slammed for “significant inaccuracies.”
Enter John Durham, whose investigation into Crossfire Hurricane’s origins concluded the FBI ignored clear warnings of political manipulation by Clinton campaign efforts, a glaring oversight in investigative rigor.
As the Durham report starkly put it, “The aforementioned facts reflect a rather startling and inexplicable failure to adequately consider and incorporate the Clinton Plan intelligence into the FBI’s investigative decision-making in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
One can’t help but wonder if a less politically charged lens might have spared the nation years of divisive headlines—call it a missed chance for clarity over conspiracy.
Now, Brennan faces a criminal investigation, with former CIA Director John Ratcliffe referring evidence for potential prosecution, while Strzok and Page, once part of Mueller’s team, were sidelined after anti-Trump texts surfaced in 2018, leading to Page’s resignation and Strzok’s firing from the FBI.
Even James Comey, former FBI director, is under criminal investigation for alleged false statements and obstruction, though he’s pleaded not guilty with a trial looming in January—a reminder that accountability might just be catching up.
With a Justice Department “strike force” evaluating evidence on top Obama-era officials’ roles in this saga, these subpoenas aren’t just paperwork; they’re a signal that the long shadow of Russiagate still demands answers, and conservatives watching this unfold can only hope the truth, not political theater, wins the day.
