Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Sunday downplayed the significance of the grand jury recently impaneled to investigate, in part, President Trump administration connections with Russia, calling it "just a tool."

"It's just a tool that we use like any other tool in the course of our investigations," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

"In general, Chris, it doesn't say anything about the likelihood of indictments," he told host Chris Wallace, declining to comment specifically on the Russia investigation.

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"Because we conduct investigations and we make a determination at some point in the course of the investigation about whether charges are appropriate," he continued.

When pressed on what the advantage is to taking an investigation to a grand jury, Rosenstein said "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."

His comments come after a report last week that special counsel Robert Mueller 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.