The FBI has quietly opened an investigation into a decade’s worth of activities—from the Russia collusion narrative to the Jack Smith prosecutions—by Democratic operatives and elements of the intelligence community, according to a Monday report.
The probe could lead to the appointment of a special prosecutor to determine whether these well-documented episodes constitute a coordinated effort to influence three U.S. elections in favor of Democrats and to President Trump’s detriment, Just the News reported, citing unnamed sources within the administration.
The “grand conspiracy” investigation was launched several weeks ago under the new FBI Director, Kash Patel, and could gain momentum if President Trump declassifies two classified sets of evidence pointing to a potential origin of the alleged scheme in the summer of 2016, sources with direct knowledge told Just the News.
The first set comes from a classified annex to a years-old inspector general inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, obtained at the request of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, and is believed to reveal that the FBI deliberately overlooked credible allegations of misconduct.
The second tranche, labeled “Clinton plan intelligence” in Special Counsel John Durham’s final report on Russiagate, was similarly sequestered in a classified annex and withheld from both the public and most members of Congress, Just the News noted.
Earlier this month, CIA Director John Ratcliffe issued a harsh critique of the U.S. intelligence community’s handling of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He faulted former CIA Director John Brennan for aligning the agency with the FBI’s decision to incorporate ex-British spy Christopher Steele’s discredited anti-Trump dossier into official assessments.
Ratcliffe specifically concluded that Brennan “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness.”
The CIA director then posted on social media regarding his report, calling the smear campaign against Trump an “atypical & corrupt process under the politically charged environments of former Dir. Brennan & former FBI Dir. Comey.”
If Trump declassifies the Grassley and Durham annexes, prosecutors could present them to a grand jury to illustrate a pattern of the FBI and intelligence community knowingly suppressing evidence harmful to Democrats while aggressively pursuing flawed claims against the president, Just the News added.
Separately, Trump administration officials are considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate revelations, first reported by Just the News, that the FBI received human-source intelligence and corroborating evidence suggesting China orchestrated fake mail-in ballots in 2020 to boost Joe Biden.
The FBI reportedly neither investigated the tip nor preserved the material, instead recalling it and ordering its destruction. However, with the five-year statute of limitations on that allegation set to expire weeks after the evidence emerged in August 2020, any criminal referral faces an extremely narrow window for action, the outlet reported.
Over the weekend, we released our latest NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey, filled with insights about how Americans at large — and members of Gen Z more specifically — are feeling about President Donald Trump and the state of the country.It also contains several warning signs for Republicans as they seek to defend their congressional majorities in this fall’s midterm elections.
Here are three takeaways. Trump’s approval rating keeps sliding: Across the first two Decision Desk polls of Trump’s second term — one conducted in mid-April, the other in late May and early June — his job rating was consistent: 45% approve, 55% disapprove. Those numbers have gotten steadily worse for him ever since.
Trump hit a new low in the latest Decision Desk survey, with 37% of adults approving of his job performance and 63% disapproving — including 50% who strongly disapprove. Republicans accounted for some of that decline: Trump saw a 4-point drop in approval with that group since the last poll conducted in late January and early February. And the percentage of Republicans who strongly approved of his job performance dropped 6 points.
Trump is well underwater on two key issues: The economy was once again the top issue for Americans in the poll. Asked specifically which economic issue mattered most, inflation and the rising cost of living was easily the top answer. And they gave Trump low marks on the topic: 68% said they disapproved of how Trump is handling inflation and the cost of living. The share of Americans who strongly disapprove (52%) is up 7 points since last summer, the last time the Decision Desk survey asked the question. And the percentage of Republicans who said they approve of Trump’s handling of inflation (73%) is 10 points lower.
The numbers were similar on Iran: 67% disapproved of his handling of the war, including 54% who strongly disapproved. Among Republicans, 74% disapproved. And overall, 61% of adults said the U.S. should not take any further military action in Iran.
Young Americans — Republicans included — are feeling more pessimistic: Eight in 10 members of Gen Z (respondents ages 18-29) said the U.S. is on the wrong track, a 12-point shift from a poll conducted last August and September.
The shift among Gen Z Republicans was particularly notable. In the new poll, they were split on whether the country is on the right track. But last summer, 67% said it was on the right track.
Graham Platner, a combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and grew deeply disillusioned with war, is angry about President Donald Trump’s military action in Iran.
“It’s just really sad and frustrating to watch a system and people in power essentially just do the same thing that took me to war in Iraq, but without any of the attempts to trick anybody,” Platner told NBC News after a town hall here.
In the Maine Senate race, the backlash to the war with Iran has played to Platner’s strengths — against both Democratic primary rival and two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who also opposes the war, and longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who has so far voted to allow Trump to continue waging it.
As they plan to approve a budget resolution this week, Senate Republican leaders are facing internal divisions about the scope of their party-line bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol for four years.
Some want to limit the bill to just immigration enforcement. Others want to broaden it out to include other GOP priorities, fearing this will be their last chance to pass a major bill without Democratic support before the midterms.
The party’s ability to resolve the matter will be crucial to the endgame of funding the Department of Homeland Security, which is in a record-long shutdown of 66 days and counting. That’s because House Republicans are holding up the Senate-passed bill to fund the rest of DHS — including TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard — until the upper chamber moves on the party-line bill.
Adopting the budget on the floor could be enough for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to allow a House vote on that DHS bill. It would trigger the process of crafting filibuster-proof legislation that can bypass the Senate’s 60-vote rule and cut Democrats out of the process for the purpose of funding ICE and Border Patrol.
But if Senate Republicans get tied up in knots over the budget, the DHS bill could remain stalled. President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to move money around to give back pay to TSA agents so they return to work, but it’s unclear if they’ll get another paycheck without a new law to approve funding.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said he wants to keep the bill “skinny” and focused solely on ICE and Border Patrol. And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Budget Committee chairman, told NBC News that nothing else is guaranteed because it needs to get the votes. Senate Republicans can only afford to lose three of their 53 members on the vote.
“I think we need to put as much in there as we can get,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who called for including Iran war funding and attempting to add funding-related provisions from the SAVE America Act, a Trump-backed voting bill. “Only thing we’ve gotten done in the last year is the big, beautiful bill. Now we’re gonna have one this year. Let’s put a saddle on it and ride it, and see how much we can get done.”
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., has also called for trying to pass elements of the SAVE America Act in reconciliation, although the author of the bill, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, insists it was not designed for the budget process and isn’t eligible for it.
That’s not all. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he’s “vigorously” pushing Republicans to add tax cut provisions to it such as “indexing capital gains to inflation.”
“Right now, leadership’s plan is to have the skinny, anorexic bill that just has funding for ICE and [CBP]. I think that is short-minded, short-sighted,” Cruz said last week on Fox Business. “We shouldn’t miss this opportunity to go big.”
“There ain’t gonna be another reconciliation,” Cruz said. “This is the only train that is leaving the station. If we want to do something big and bold before the midterm elections, we either do it now, or we’re going to end up missing altogether.”
Tuberville similarly predicted there won’t be another Republican-only bill.
“We might as well go home after this one,” he said.