The Justice Department (DOJ) has subpoenaed former FBI Director James Comey over his role in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian election interference, a source confirmed to Fox News Digital.
The subpoena marks a new escalation after Fox News Digital previously reported that Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan were under criminal investigation related to the probe.
Sources at the time said the investigations were examining potential wrongdoing tied to the creation of the 2017 assessment and possible false statements to Congress.
The 2017 ICA concluded that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election, but a later review found the process was rushed and included “procedural anomalies.”
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A well-placed source briefed on the matter confirmed to Fox News the subpoena was served last week from the Southern District of Florida and is also connected to the ongoing investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan.
Fox News Digital first reported that Comey and Brennan were under federal investigation.
In July, Fox News Digital first reported that CIA Director John Ratcliffe sent a criminal referral for Brennan to the FBI after he declassified records revealing that Brennan did, in fact, push for the discredited anti-Trump dossier to be included in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment despite the CIA’s consensus that it was filled with “internet rumor.”
The referral came after Ratcliffe declassified a “lessons learned” review of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The 2017 ICA alleged Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election to help candidate Trump. But the review found that the process of the ICA’s creation was rushed with “procedural anomalies” and that officials diverted from intelligence standards.
It also determined that the “decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.”
The dossier was an anti-Trump document filled with unverified and wholly inaccurate claims that was commissioned by Fusion GPS and paid for by Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC. It has been widely discredited. The review marks the first time career CIA officials have acknowledged politicization of the process by which the ICA was written, particularly by Obama-era political appointees.
Records declassified as part of that review further revealed that Brennan did, in fact, push for the dossier to be included in the 2017 ICA.
FBI Director Kash Patel received the criminal referral and opened an investigation into Brennan.
Patel, at the time, also opened a criminal investigation into Comey.
The full scope of those criminal investigations is unclear, but two sources described the FBI’s view of the duo’s interactions as a “conspiracy,” which could open up a wide range of potential prosecutorial options.
Last year, Fox News Digital also exclusively reported that the Obama administration “manufactured and politicized intelligence” to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election despite information from the intelligence community stating otherwise.
Declassified documents obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital last year revealed that in the months leading up to the November 2016 election, the intelligence community consistently assessed that Russia was “probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means.”
One instance was on Dec. 7, 2016, weeks after the election. Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s talking points stated, “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome.”
Fox News Digital obtained a declassified copy of the Presidential Daily Brief, which was prepared by the Department of Homeland Security, with reporting from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, State Department and open sources, for Obama, dated Dec. 8, 2016.
“We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure,” the Presidential Daily Brief stated. “Russian Government-affiliated actors most likely compromised an Illinois voter registration database and unsuccessfully attempted the same in other states.”
But the brief stated that it was “highly unlikely” the effort “would have resulted in altering any state’s official vote result.”
“Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes,” it stated.
The brief noted that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed that any Russian activities “probably were intended to cause psychological effects, such as undermining the credibility of the election process and candidates.”
The brief stated that cyber criminals “tried to steal data and to interrupt election processes by targeting election infrastructure, but these actions did not achieve a notable disruptive effect.”
Fox News Digital obtained declassified, but redacted, communications from the FBI on the Presidential Daily Brief, stating that it “should not go forward until the FBI” had shared its “concerns.”
Those communications revealed that the FBI drafted a “dissent” to the original Presidential Daily Brief.
The communications revealed that the brief was expected to be published Dec. 9, 2016, the next day, but later communications revealed that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “based on some new guidance” decided to “push back publication” of the Presidential Daily Brief.
“It will not run tomorrow and is not likely to run until next week,” the deputy director of the Presidential Daily Brief at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose name is redacted, wrote.
The following day, Dec. 9, 2016, a meeting convened in the White House Situation Room, with the subject line starting, “Summary of Conclusions for PC Meeting on a Sensitive Topic (REDACTED.)”
The meeting included top officials in the National Security Council, Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, among others, to discuss Russia.
The declassified meeting record, obtained by Fox News Digital, revealed that principals “agreed to recommend sanctioning of certain members of the Russian military intelligence and foreign intelligence chains of command responsible for cyber operations as a response to cyber activity that attempted to influence or interfere with U.S. elections, if such activity meets the requirements” from an executive order that demanded the blocking of property belonging to people engaged in cyber activities.
After the meeting, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Clapper’s executive assistant emailed intelligence community leaders tasking them to create a new intelligence community assessment “per the president’s request” that detailed the “tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.”
“ODNI will lead this effort with participation from CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS,” the record states.
Later, Obama officials “leaked false statements to media outlets” claiming that “Russia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election.”
By Jan. 6, 2017, a new Intelligence Community Assessment was released that, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “directly contradicted the IC assessments that were made throughout the previous six months.”
Intelligence officials told Fox News Digital that the ICA was “politicized” because it “suppressed intelligence from before and after the election showing Russia lacked intent and capability to hack the 2016 election.”
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Officials also said it deceived the American public “by claiming the IC made no assessment on the ‘impact’ of Russian activities,” when the intelligence community “did, in fact, assess for impact.”
“The unpublished December PDB stated clearly that Russia ‘did not impact’ the election through cyber hacks on the election,” an official told Fox News Digital.
The official also said that the ICA had assessed that “Russia was responsible for leaking data from the DNC and DCCC,” but while “failing to mention that FBI and NSA previously expressed low confidence in this attribution.”
Officials told Fox News Digital that the new assessment “was based on information that was known by those involved to be manufactured, i.e., the Steele Dossier or deemed as not credible.”
Officials said that the intelligence was “politicized” and then “used as the basis for countless smears seeking to delegitimize President Trump’s victory, the years-long Mueller investigation, two Congressional impeachments, high level officials being investigated, arrested, and thrown in jail, heightened US-Russia tensions, and more.”
Axios first reported the subpoena.
Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this reporting.
