The Democrats had it their way under Barack Obama, funding an unverified dossier of wild claims about Donald Trump that was used to spy on his campaign and prompt a special counsel probe that concluded after two years there was no "there" there.

Now, under a Republican administration, the Justice Department is conducting a criminal probe of the origins of the Obama investigation, investigating the investigators.

Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said with the subpoena and grand-jury powers a criminal probe affords, an Obama official is likely to turn.

"Folks, we have finally a criminal investigation," he said Friday. "What happens in criminal investigations? One of these creeps – and believe me, there is criminality galore in this investigation. There is lying; there is actual criminal behavior; and it is big. And one of these creeps, one of them is gonna flip."

TRENDING: Democrats quietly backpedal from 'vote by mail' as it backfires in real time

He explained: "One of them is gonna decide, 'You know what? Do I really want to go to prison for James Comey? Do I really want to spend time in jail for John freaking Brennan? Do I want to give up my future for James baldy Clapper?' These things are gonna become factors as the grand jury's work begins. These are things that these people never believed possible to happen to them, just like Hollywood actresses cannot believe they're going to jail for trying to get their kids into USC."

Limbaugh said the Obama officials who brought the charges believe "they are immune from the regular rigors of the law like you and I are not."

"They believe they are. They did not think this day was gonna come. They may have fretted about it, but they never let themselves believe this day would come. Now it has, and all of the perceptions that they hold are going to be change dramatically."

He said there is "obviously a palpable fear running through the Washington establishment now that Attorney General [Bill] Barr and his investigator have officially opened a criminal inquiry into the investigation of the investigation of Donald Trump."

Fox News analyst Chris Wallace said the issue exposed the huge "hypocrisy" in Washington. Democrats are happy with investigations as long as they are running the show, he said, pointing to their current impeachment inquiry. And the GOP is happy running investigations into what Democrats have done.

But neither side is happy being investigated.

Limbaugh said it appears the Democrats impeachment inquiry led by Rep. Adam Schiff and others really is about reversing the 2016 election results.

"However, I think there's something more specific now that is more obvious to me than ever. I think what Schiff and Pelosi and this entire so-called impeachment inquiry is really all about is derailing the Barr investigation. And I think that's why they're in such a hurry.

"I think it's really about trying to come to something, they're trying to convince the American people that Trump is guilty and should not be president before Barr and [U.S. Attorney John] Durham and [DOJ Inspector General] Horowitz have time to reveal anything. And there’s one downside to what happened here. We now have an official criminal investigation. That means that Durham and Barr can impanel a grand jury. And this is why the McCabes and the Brennans and the Clappers are running around today in a near panic."

Democrats have expressed outrage over the Justice Department's criminal investigation.

"These reports, if true, raise profound new concerns that the Department of Justice under Attorney General William Barr has lost its independence and become a vehicle for President Trump's political revenge," said Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee.

"If the Department of Justice may be used as a tool of political retribution or to help the president with a political narrative for the next election, the rule of law will suffer new and irreparable damage," they said.

The investigation, however, is into whether the Democrats did exactly that.

Limbaugh explained: "This is a brazen attempt by the people in Washington to tell the rest of the country, 'What you think and how you vote really doesn’t matter in the end because we’re gonna have this country run the way we want to run it with us running it. And every election is just a little exercise making you think you matter, but you really don't.' That’s what this is. Make no mistake about it. That’s what this is.

"Barack Obama and his political allies have been using the powers of the intelligence community, which is the government and the FBI, which is the government, and the entire Department of Justice, which is the government and the State Department, which is the government, and the media, to go after their opponent, Donald Trump," he said.

"But now when the tables turned right, all of a sudden this is not fair, this is not right, this is not good. Trump and his allies can’t use the government to go after their opponents," he said.