Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are investigating evidence regarding the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
"The Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend Director Gabbard and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people," Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
"We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice," she said.
The strike force consists of teams made up of investigators and prosecutors that focus on "the worst offenders engaged in fraudulent activities, including, chiefly, health care fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, money laundering offenses, false statements offenses," and more, according to the DOJ.
FILE - President Barack Obama waves on stage with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a rally at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Nov. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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 also opened a criminal investigation into former FBI Director James Comey.
The full scope of the criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey 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.
The FBI and CIA declined to comment.
Neither Brennan nor Comey immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
FILE - President Barack Obama speaks to the media after meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey in the Oval Office at the White House, July 19, 2016, in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
And on Wednesday, Gabbard declassified documents that showed that the intelligence community did not have any direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but, at the "unusual" direction of then-President Barack Obama, published "potentially biased" or "implausible" intelligence suggesting otherwise.
That information came from a report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence back in 2020.
The report, which was based on an investigation launched by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was dated Sept. 18, 2020. At the time of the publication of the report, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chairman of the committee.
The report has never before been released to the public, and instead, has remained highly classified within the intelligence community.
But Clapper and Lynch, and then Vice President Joe Biden, were present in the Oval Office July 28, 2016, when Brennan briefed Obama and Comey on intelligence he’d received from one of Hillary Clinton's campaign foreign policy advisors "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."
"We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from (REDACTED)," Brennan’s handwritten notes, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in October 2020, read. "CITE (summarizing) alleged approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."
Meanwhile, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, according to the transcript of her interview to the House Intelligence Committee, was asked whether she had or saw any evidence of collusion or conspiracy.
Power replied: "I am not in possession of anything — I am not in possession and didn’t read or absorb information that came from out of the intelligence community."
When asked again, she said: "I am not."
Rice was asked the same question.
"To the best of my recollection, there wasn’t anything smoking, but there were some things that gave me pause," she said, according to her transcribed interview, in response to whether she had any evidence of conspiracy. "I don’t recall intelligence that I would consider evidence to that effect that I saw… conspiracy prior to my departure."
When asked whether she had any evidence of "coordination," Rice replied: "I don’t recall any intelligence or evidence to that effect."
Meanwhile, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was not asked that specific question but rather questions about the accuracy and legitimacy of the unverified anti-Trump dossier compiled by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
McCabe was asked during his interview in 2017 what was the most "damning or important piece of evidence in the dossier that" he "now knows is true."
McCabe replied: "We have not been able to prove the accuracy of all the information."
"You don’t know if it’s true or not?" a House investigator asked, to which McCabe replied: "That's correct."
After Trump’s 2016 victory and during the presidential transition period, Comey briefed Trump on the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier, containing salacious allegations of purported coordination between Trump and the Russian government. Brennan was present for that briefing, which took place at Trump Tower in New York City in January 2017.
The dossier was authored by Steele. It was funded by Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the law firm Perkins Coie.
Robert Mueller, former special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice. (AP newsroom | Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Photo by Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times)
But Brennan and Comey knew of intelligence suggesting Clinton, during the campaign, was stirring up a plan to tie Trump to Russia, documents claim. It is unclear whether the intelligence community, at the time, knew that the dossier was paid for by Clinton and the DNC.
The Obama-era officials have been mum on the new revelations, but a spokesman for Obama on Tuesday made a rare public statement.
FBI LAUNCHES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS OF JOHN BRENNAN, JAMES COMEY: DOJ SOURCES
"Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response," Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. "But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one."
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"These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," Obama's spokesman continued. "Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes."
He added: "These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio."
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-forms-russiagate-strike-force-declassified-obama-era-russiagate-evidence