The Trump administration’s launch of a grand jury probe into Obama-era officials marks an escalation in its use of the justice system to go after political adversaries, amid mounting pressure to release the Epstein files.

It’s the first sign the Justice Department is acting on criminal referrals made by Trump intelligence officials, including after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused officials of a “treasonous conspiracy" related to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The documents released by her office, however, do not appear to back that claim, instead largely showing officials discussing what they acknowledged shortly after the election — that Russia was never able to manipulate vote totals.

Nonetheless, the White House broke with the practice of maintaining secrecy around grand jury proceedings, confirming the probe in pointing to “the compelling case” outlined by Gabbard, which they argue “exposed clear and blatant weaponization by corrupt intelligence officials acting at the behest of the Democrat Party and likely former President Obama.”

The White House further argues the Obama officials “worked to sabotage the Trump administration.”

“It doesn't get more serious than this. This is a criminal conspiracy. The evidence is clear there's a criminal conspiracy here and nobody is above the law,” Mike Davis, an ally of President Trump who runs The Article III Project, said on Fox News.

The administration’s attempts to focus attention on the Russia findings come as Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi face pressure, including from many Republicans, to release more information related to the case of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Among the possible targets are former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of........

© The Hill