James Comey Subpoenaed

James Comey is back in prosecutors' sights. The former FBI director has been hit with a subpoena in a sweeping Florida-based investigation examining how the government handled the 2016 Russia election-interference probe and other Trump-related cases, sources tell NBC News and Axios. The inquiry is being run by Jason A. Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and has been labeled a "grand conspiracy" investigation by allies of President Trump. Comey's lawyer declined to comment; Quiñones' office did not respond to inquiries. Comey has in the past condemned the Trump administration's efforts to prosecute him as political persecution. Fox News reports former CIA Director John Brennan is also a target of the 2016 probe.

The Justice Department effort, ordered last year by Attorney General Pam Bondi, is testing the limits of the statute of limitations (which typically would bar an investigation reaching back a decade) by arguing that alleged conspirators took actions within the past five years related to the alleged conspiracy. More than 130 subpoenas have been issued so far, according to one source, mostly to officials in the Obama and Biden administrations. Federal prosecutors have broad leeway to demand documents or testimony through grand jury subpoenas, which typically face judicial scrutiny only if a target moves to quash them. The Trump administration previously tried to prosecute Comey over congressional testimony, but that case collapsed after a judge found the Trump-aligned prosecutor in that matter had been improperly appointed. The DOJ is appealing that ruling.