Obama administration officials responsible for lying to the American public and manufacturing the “Russian collusion” hoax may soon face legal consequences for their involvement in potential treason. The Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered a grand jury investigation on Monday in response to a criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard.

According to documents declassified and published by Gabbard over the past several weeks, then-President Barack Obama and his administration’s intelligence officials conspired to delegitimize President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House by alleging that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a bid to install Trump as president. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday assigned a federal prosecutor to investigate and present evidence to a grand jury.

In December of 2016, Obama summoned DNI James Clapper, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey, Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and others to a White House meeting where he requested that the intelligence community (IC) contradict its former intelligence reports and findings up to that point and issue a report which would serve as the basis for the “Russian collusion” narrative. Clapper, Brennan, and Comey quickly produced the report, which numerous authorities and oversight bodies have found to be riddled with errors and significant breaches of protocol.

Further documents have also linked the “Russian collusion” narrative to the presidential campaign of Trump’s 2016 opponent, Obama’s former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Clinton campaign had, in fact, funded the creation of an unverifiable and since-debunked report known as the Steele dossier. Compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Steele dossier cited exclusively anonymous sources to advance sweeping and often vulgar claims about Trump’s relationship with Russian officials. Against the advice of numerous senior CIA officials and analysts, Brennan included the Steele dossier in the IC’s “Russian collusion” report in January of 2017.

Trump, Gabbard, and other administration officials have called for prosecutions in the wake of the declassification of the “Russian collusion” documents. “There must be indictments,” Gabbard said in her referral to the DOJ. Specifically requesting that an investigation be opened, she continued, “Those responsible, no matter how powerful they are and were at that time, no matter who was involved in creating this treasonous conspiracy against the American people, they all must be held accountable.”

Trump himself referred to the event as “the biggest scandal in American History.” He added, “The perpetrators of this CRIME must pay a big price. This can never be allowed to happen in our Country again!” Both Trump and Gabbard have previously suggested that even Obama may be investigated and prosecuted, although Trump later pointed out that the former president is likely protected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling on presidential immunity. “It probably helps him a lot, probably helps a lot, the immunity ruling. But it doesn’t help the people around him at all. But it probably helps him a lot,” Trump said last week. He added, “He’s done criminal acts, there’s no question about it. But he has immunity, and it probably helps him a lot.” Referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States, a case centered on the 45th and now 47th president, Trump quipped, “He owes me big, Obama owes me big.”

However, in an interview Friday, Trump did insist that Obama administration officials be prosecuted. “I let Hillary off the hook,” Trump said, referring to his 2016 Democratic opponent’s possible criminal actions related to storing classified information on an unsecured personal server. “I let her off the hook for what? And then I come in and they did the same thing to me. The difference is, they actually meant it, and they hurt a lot of people,” Trump added. He continued, “And it was all a hoax, and now they have it in black and white. No, I think they should pay a price.”

No indictments have yet been produced, and the DOJ has declined to comment on which Obama-era officials are under investigation. Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told The Washington Stand, “The big names have been named already, such as Obama, Hillary, Comey, [former FBI Director Christopher] Wray, and Brennan.” He continued, “What I’ll be interested to see, and think it is absolutely necessary to understand the scope and prosecute it effectively, is if this stretches to individuals still at the relevant agencies, particularly the FBI, not to mention politicians in the House and Senate.” Howell explained, “There are a lot of people still there who either played a direct role or knew what was going on and did nothing. That includes the decisions not to do the basic diligence on clear evidence relating to the Bidens and others because it would have undermined the political narrative against Trump.”

According to a Rasmussen Reports survey published Monday, a majority of Americans not only believe that crimes were committed to further the “Russian collusion” narrative, but that Obama administration officials must face consequences. Over half of likely U.S. voters agreed that Clapper, Brennan, Comey, and others “likely” “committed crimes,” including nearly 40% who consider it “very likely” that Obama deputies “committed crimes” related to the “Russian collusion” hoax.

Meanwhile, over two-thirds (69%) of likely voters agreed that “Accountability has to take place. … It is critical for the survival of our country that people who perpetrate such crimes are held accountable…” Of note, nearly a third of Democrats polled believe it’s likely that the Obama administration “committed crimes” and nearly 60% believe administration officials responsible for the “Russian collusion” hoax must face justice.