Justice Department’s brewing case against former CIA chief tests its efforts to prosecute Trump foes

Justice Department prosecutors leading an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan are facing increasing pressure from top Justice officials to bring criminal charges against him after the department has flailed in trying to punish President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, people briefed on the matter told CNN in recent days.

“Justice Department prosecutors leading an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan are facing increasing pressure from top Justice officials to bring criminal charges against him after the department has flailed in trying to punish President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, people briefed on the matter told CNN in recent days”

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Prosecutors in the Miami US attorney’s office have been leading the Brennan probe, which relates to testimony the ex-intelligence chief gave to Congress in 2023 and the Russia investigation years earlier, issuing two rounds of subpoenas to several witnesses.

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The push for charges has run into career prosecutors raising concerns in southern Florida, with some viewing the potential case as relatively weak, and Brennan’s lawyers have been bracing for a possible indictment for months that has not materialized.

Justice officials and US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones made a push in January to bring a case against him, but some career prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida resisted the pressure; sources say prosecutors are now facing a new wave of pressure and are struggling to delay bringing the case to a grand jury.

Prosecutors first gathered documents late last year from Brennan and other former intelligence officials, seeking information about a 2017 intelligence report on Russian meddling that Brennan worked on and that he discussed in his 2023 congressional testimony.

A second round of subpoenas went in January to several former government officials and sought years of documents, including government records on the 2016 Russia investigation that the people would no longer have access to, and at least one former intelligence community official has been interviewed in the probe, sources said.

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Though Brennan could still face grand jury activity, the investigation also could fall apart, and his lawyers have said accusations of perjury are without any merit.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment for this story, saying it does not comment on ongoing investigations.

The Brennan push comes amid a broader pattern of the Trump Justice Department aggressively pursuing figures Mr. Trump and other senior officials have named as targets, and several probes into the president’s perceived enemies have failed when presented to grand juries or stalled, people familiar with the matters told CNN.

“Justice Department prosecutors leading an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan are facing increasing pressure from top Justice officials to bring criminal charges against him after the department has flailed in trying to punish President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, people briefed on the matter told CNN in recent days”

CNN

Federal prosecutors twice tried to bring charges against Comey and three times against New York Attorney General Letitia James only to see those efforts tossed or rejected by judges and grand juries, and a grand jury in Washington, DC, recently denied the Justice Department’s attempt to criminally charge Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and five other members of Congress.

Trump has publicly posted names of people he’d like to see indicted and complained to US attorneys about the pace of investigations, and FBI Director Kash Patel has echoed public messaging about holding officials like Comey and Brennan accountable.

Critics and defense lawyers say the department has been used to name and shame targets, with one Justice official, Ed Martin, saying those who cannot be charged should be named and shamed, while former prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky said, “The process is the punishment,” and Abbe Lowell accused the DOJ of becoming “a willing political weapon.”

Action in Florida has played a central role: US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, who has sought to establish himself as a Trump loyalist since taking office last year, has driven efforts in the Southern District of Florida, and Brennan’s attorneys wrote to the chief judge in Miami just before Christmas accusing Quiñones of attempting to investigate Brennan through a Fort Pierce grand jury under the direction of Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon, who previously dismissed the criminal case against Trump.

If Brennan were charged, sources say it may be in Washington, DC, where prosecutors would face a grand jury that may be less willing to indict a former administration official that Trump publicly criticizes.

CNN

Prosecutors have focused on allegations from congressional Republicans that Brennan made false statements in testimony to Congress in 2017 and 2023 about the Intelligence Community Assessment, with Brennan testifying the CIA was not involved with the Steele dossier’s inclusion in the report and Republican lawmakers saying he was aware of the dossier’s inclusion; Brennan has denied any wrongdoing.

In a December letter to Southern District of Florida Chief Judge Cecilia Altonaga, Brennan’s attorneys wrote that presidential pressure to pursue political targets “has resulted in an unprecedented spike in the incidence of irregular prosecutorial conduct,” and CNN’s Paula Reid contributed to this report.