Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein says the creation of a grand jury to probe the Trump campaign's possible connections to Russia is just a routine step in an ongoing investigation.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," he said the jury is "just a tool."
"It's just a tool that we use like any other tool in the course of our investigations," Rosenstein told host Chris Wallace. "In general, Chris, it doesn't say anything about the likelihood of indictments.
"Because we conduct investigations and we make a determination at some point in the course of the investigation about whether charges are appropriate," he said.
Rosenstein stressed that "many of our investigations... involve the use of a grand jury."
"It's an appropriate way to gather documents, sometimes you bring witnesses in to make sure that you get their full testimony," he said.
"It's just a tool that we use like any other tool in the course of our investigations."
Special counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington as part of the ongoing investigation into Russia's election meddling and contact between Trump campaign members and Moscow officials.