Justice Department Removes Maria Medetis Long From John Brennan Investigation

The U.S. Department of Justice removed Maria Medetis Long, the career Miami federal prosecutor leading the investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, after she resisted pressure to quickly bring charges, according to people briefed on the matter cited by CNN.

“Top prosecutor in Florida removed from probe into ex-CIA Director John Brennan: Sources Maria Medetis Long allegedly expressed doubts about the probe, sources say”

ABC News

CNN reported that on Friday Medetis Long notified attorneys representing people involved in the case that she was no longer handling the investigation, and that she had led the politically sensitive probe for months amid demands from President Donald Trump to prosecute Brennan and other critics.

ABC News

CNN said the investigation is focused on the 2017 intelligence assessment that found Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump, and that Trump’s demands took on more urgency after Trump fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, CNN reported, has redoubled efforts to satisfy the president’s demands as he seeks to keep the job after Bondi’s ouster.

The Justice Department said in a statement it is a routine practice to move attorneys around on cases “so offices can most effectively allocate resources,” adding, “It is completely healthy and normal to change members of legal teams.”

ABC News similarly reported that attorneys were informed Friday that Medetis Long would no longer be handling the case moving forward, and that a Justice Department spokesperson said, “as a matter of routine practice, attorneys are moved around on cases so offices can most effectively allocate resources. It is completely healthy and normal to change members of legal teams.”

CBS News confirmed that Medetis Long, head of the national security section for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida, was no longer assigned to the case, and said the personnel shift was confirmed by a Justice Department spokesperson.

Across the reports, the Brennan investigation is tied to congressional testimony and a specific intelligence assessment, with multiple outlets describing the same core allegation that Brennan lied to Congress about his role in crafting the 2017 assessment.

CNN said prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida are focused on allegations that Brennan lied to Congress about the years-ago intelligence assessment, and it described Brennan’s 2017 testimony as saying Russia “brazenly interfered” in US elections, including actively contacting members of Trump’s campaign, while stopping shy of dubbing it “collusion.”

Alternet

ABC News similarly said the investigation is believed to center around congressional testimony from Brennan about his role in crafting a 2017 assessment by the intelligence community detailing Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election to the benefit of President Donald Trump.

CBS News added that the probe was sparked by a referral from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee last October over allegations Brennan lied to Congress about the CIA’s role in crafting the intelligence assessment into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

CBS News quoted Chairman Jim Jordan’s claim that Brennan “falsely” denied that the CIA relied on a dossier prepared by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele during the drafting of the intelligence assessment and falsely told the committee that the CIA had opposed including the in the assessment.

The Washington Examiner described the investigation as examining whether Brennan made false statements to Congress related to the 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference, and it said the referral that helped spark the investigation came from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

The Geo News report framed the removal as tied to failing to heed a call to expedite the indictment process, saying Medetis Long informed attorneys on Friday, April 17, that she was no longer handling the politically sensitive probe.

Several outlets tied Medetis Long’s removal to internal disagreement over whether charges should be brought quickly, describing a clash between career prosecutors and top Justice Department officials seeking speed.

“The lead career federal prosecutor in Miami who was overseeing a criminal investigation into whether former CIA Director John Brennan lied to Congress is no longer assigned to the case, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News on Friday”

CBS News

CNN reported that the career prosecutors and investigators handling the case had for months pushed back against demands to quickly bring charges against Brennan, and that they signaled to Justice Department officials they don’t believe the case is a strong one, even as they continued to work toward possibly bringing it in federal court in Washington, DC.

CNN said investigators in recent weeks had conducted interviews with witnesses and issued a fresh round of subpoenas, “signaling a case that is moving ahead but not likely on the rapid timeline that top Justice Department officials have sought.”

The Washington Examiner similarly said the development was first reported by CNN and cited sources suggesting the move came after internal disagreements over the strength and timing of potential charges, while a DOJ spokesperson pushed back on that characterization.

In the CBS News account, a source told CBS that the removal came after Medetis Long informed U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones that she did not believe there was not enough to make a case, and CBS reported that prosecutors were trying to progress the investigation more quickly.

CNN also said Quiñones told DOJ officials that charges could still be months away, which top Justice Department officials told him was not acceptable.

Geo News added a different emphasis by saying the ouster came because she failed to heed the call to expedite the indictment process, and it described Trump’s demands as escalating for months.

The reporting also places the Brennan probe within a broader network of officials and referrals, with multiple outlets naming the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami and the judge tied to future proceedings.

CNN said Medetis Long led the politically sensitive probe for months amid demands from Trump and that her team sent out several rounds of subpoenas, requests for documents from Congress, and was seeking witness interviews as part of the probe, while Brennan’s lawyers braced for a possible indictment.

CNN

CNN described the investigation as being handled by prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, where Medetis Long is the National Security Section Chief, and it said in recent weeks DOJ officials met with Quiñones and others in his office to discuss progress.

CBS News added that among the attorneys now assigned to the case is Chris DeLorenz, a department official confirmed, and it said DeLorenz recently left Washington to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami.

The New Republic and ABC News both described the probe as part of a larger investigation run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, with ABC News saying sources described it as examining whether former officials engaged in a “grand conspiracy” to violate Trump’s rights dating back to his 2016 campaign.

The New Republic said the U.S. attorney’s office in southern Florida issued 30 subpoenas to individuals, including Brennan and other former intelligence officials, and it said those cases were set to land on the desk of the same judge who handed the president his get-out-of-jail-free card back in July 2024: Aileen Cannon.

In the CBS News account, a former CIA official was set to be interviewed by federal prosecutors and FBI agents in early May as part of the ongoing investigation, and CBS said the person is a witness, not a target, and has been interviewed more than once.

The next steps described in the reporting center on whether the DOJ will bring charges against Brennan and how quickly, with multiple outlets emphasizing that the case was moving but not on the timeline top officials wanted.

“Published April 18, 2026 The Justice Department has dismissed the experienced Miami federal prosecutor in charge of the criminal probe of ex-CIA director John Brennan, who is a vocal Trump critic, for failing to heed the call to expedite the indictment process, according to several sources”

Geo News

CNN said investigators had conducted interviews with witnesses and issued a fresh round of subpoenas, and it said the case was moving ahead but not likely on the rapid timeline that top Justice Department officials have sought, while Brennan’s lawyers had been bracing for a possible indictment for months.

Geo News

ABC News said attorneys were surprised because additional interviews were scheduled in the coming days as the department moved closer toward deciding whether to bring charges against Brennan.

The New Republic similarly said some attorneys were surprised because there were additional interviews scheduled in the coming days as the department weighed whether to bring charges, and it described the probe as looking into allegations that Brennan lied to Congress about his role in crafting an intelligence assessment.

The Washington Examiner raised jurisdictional questions by saying a potential prosecution could face jurisdictional challenges, particularly because Brennan’s testimony occurred in Washington, D.C., rather than Florida, where the investigation is currently based.

It also described the possibility that prosecutors could interview “roughly a half-dozen witnesses” including former intelligence officials involved in drafting the 2017 assessment, and it said investigators had already conducted some interviews and issued multiple rounds of subpoenas.

CBS News added that Medetis Long remains employed by the Justice Department and that she referred all questions to a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office, while the DOJ spokesperson reiterated that attorney moves are routine.