WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is preparing grand jury subpoenas demanding documents from top Obama administration officials whom President Donald Trump believes unfairly tried to implicate him in a probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, sources told USA TODAY.

Trump has been publicly demanding such a probe for months, including specifying the names of some of the former top law enforcement and intelligence officials he wants to see prosecuted.

Now the Justice Department appears to be doing just that, with the probe being led by Jason Reding Quiñones, a friend of Attorney General Pam Bondi who is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, sources familiar with the probe said.

The first grand jury subpoenas in the probe were being prepared for President Barack Obama’s director of National Intelligence, James Clapper and, reportedly, also for his CIA director, John Brennan. They seek documents pertaining to the long-running Russia investigation that began in 2016, during Obama’s tenure, one source said.

The White House confirmed the existence of the grand jury investigation in August after Fox News reported that Bondi ordered it, based on a criminal referral by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

At the time, Gabbard alleged that Brennan and others, possibly up to then-President Obama, "manufactured and politicized intelligence" as a way of going after Trump.

The probe could to go well beyond those who investigated Russia’s efforts to boost Trump’s 2016 campaign and whether any of his campaign and White House staff colluded with the Kremlin.

Other likely targets identified by Trump include national security officials in the Biden administration who investigated Trump for his allegedly illegal mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 – and for trying to overturn the 2020 election that Trump lost to Joe Biden. Both resulted in criminal prosecutions of Trump but they were dismissed once he won re-election in November 2024.

Former FBI Director James Comey, who was indicted by the Justice Department Sept. 25 on unrelated charges following Trump's demands, also has defense lawyers tasked with anticipating being included in the Miami-based investigation, which is in its early stages, according to a source familiar with the probe.

None of those former officials commented for this story through USA TODAY requests made to their lawyers. The lawyers also had no comment, citing the sensitivity and fluidity of the matter. In past statements, Clapper, Brennan and Comey have strenuously denied wrongdoing.