The Daily Wire is reporting the "U.S. Department of justice administrative review into the origins of the Russia investigation has taken a turn into a full-fledged criminal investigation." According to the New York Times, "Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges."
This move comes after more than two years the President has been calling the Russian investigation a "witch hunt" and after the hotly contested Mueller report found that there was no collusion between the Trump administration, and Russia.
The Times tried to frame the investigation as Trump is "using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies. “Mr. Barr’s reliance on Mr. Durham, a widely respected and veteran prosecutor who has investigated C.I.A. torture and broken up Mafia rings, could help insulate the attorney general from accusations that he is doing the president’s bidding and putting politics above justice,” The Times added.
Barr has not specified a to whether the investigation has begun out of something he discovered in the inspector generals report, or something that transpired out of interviews conducted by Durham or Barr.
In any case, several members of the intelligence community working under the previous administration have obtained legal counsel.
According to Justice Department Guidelines, "Federal investigators need only a “reasonable indication” that a crime has been committed to open an investigation, a much lower standard than the probable cause required to obtain search warrants. However, “there must be an objective, factual basis for initiating the investigation; a mere hunch is insufficient,”