I’ve spoken to 3 former U.S. officials who played critical roles in various parts of the Russia interference criminal and counterintelligence investigations. Two have been in contact with the Justice Department within the last two weeks. None have been asked for interviews yet.
From what they understand, the pretext for the criminal investigation is procedural issues related to information _sharing_ by the FBI at one early stage of the investigation and may relate to allegations that have already been made public. They don’t believe it relates to /2
The early FISAs themselves or the pretext for the Russia investigation itself. Might relate to information not being fully shared and vetted that caused DOJ to take certain procedural steps that they otherwise might have not taken at that moment.
This could mean a lot of things. But no suggestion that Main Justice’s career prosecutors are working off a theory that there was a conspiracy to create a pretext for investigating Trump. Again, these former officials have a vested interest in minimizing their own exposure. But
Their recollections are consistent with other reporting. FWIW.
