The Justice Department has subpoenaed former FBI Director James Comey in connection with the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference, a source confirmed to Fox News Digital Thursday.
The subpoena marks a significant escalation in an already active criminal investigation. Fox News first reported that Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan were both under criminal probe tied to how the assessment was produced and whether officials made false statements to Congress.
The 2017 ICA concluded that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. But a subsequent internal review found the process was rushed and included what investigators described as “procedural anomalies.” Critics have long questioned whether the report was manipulated to advance a political narrative against President Trump.
The subpoena was first reported by Axios.
Comey served as FBI director from 2013 until Trump fired him in May 2017, a move that touched off years of legal and political warfare between the former director and the White House. Comey went on to author a tell-all memoir and conduct a media tour portraying himself as a defender of democratic norms.
Brennan, who served as CIA director under President Obama, has also been under criminal scrutiny related to the same assessment.
Neither Comey nor Brennan have publicly commented on the latest subpoena as of Thursday evening.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has been pressing for accountability over the origins of the Russia probe for years. The current DOJ investigation represents the most concrete legal action yet against the officials who initiated and shaped the Russia collusion narrative that dominated American politics from 2016 through 2019.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s subsequent investigation did not establish that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia, though it left open questions about obstruction. The ICA that preceded Mueller’s work has been a separate focus of scrutiny.
No charges have been filed. The investigation is ongoing.
