Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have started conducting interviews with CIA personnel, both current and former employees, as part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation targeting former CIA Director John Brennan, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.
The questioning took place last week when FBI agents from the Miami field office traveled to CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia, to conduct the interviews. Sources indicate these interviews are planned to continue over the next several weeks.
For several months, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has been pursuing this investigation into Brennan. Federal prosecutors are examining whether he provided false testimony to Congress in 2023 when discussing a 2017 intelligence report that analyzed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The primary findings of that intelligence assessment, which examined Russia’s cyber operations and influence campaigns designed to support Trump’s candidacy against Hillary Clinton, have since been validated by the Justice Department, a bipartisan Senate committee, and an internal CIA review.
However, President Trump, who has consistently labeled the Russia investigation a “hoax,” has encouraged prosecutors to investigate individuals he believes were responsible for initiating the probe, with Brennan among those targets.
According to a source with knowledge of the Brennan investigation, FBI agents have interviewed approximately twelve current and former CIA officers who contributed to the 2017 assessment.
The CIA personnel are being questioned about Brennan’s involvement in creating the assessment and how much influence a disputed dossier containing unverified allegations about Trump’s connections to Russia had on the report’s findings.
The document, called the Steele dossier after its creator, former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, was financed by Trump’s political adversaries and contained scandalous rumors about supposed connections between his 2016 campaign and Moscow, allegations Trump firmly rejected.
The dossier received brief mention in the assessment, and a summary of its claims was included as an appendix to the classified version of the report. Brennan has stated that the CIA was against incorporating the dossier into the report and that the classified summary was only added as part of a compromise agreement with the FBI.
Reuters had previously reported that the FBI was anticipated to interview intelligence personnel as part of its Brennan investigation. Both the CIA and Justice Department have refused to provide comment. Brennan’s attorney also declined to comment.
In correspondence to the chief federal judge in Miami, Brennan’s legal representative revealed that prosecutors had informed his client he is considered a target of the investigation. The lawyer accused prosecutors of “judge shopping” by attempting to direct the case to a Trump-appointed judge in Fort Pierce, Florida, who had previously dismissed criminal charges against Trump.
Sources familiar with the investigation anticipate that any potential charges would ultimately need to be filed in Washington, D.C., since that is where Brennan’s congressional testimony occurred.
Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, made a referral to the DOJ in October, claiming Brennan lied during his 2023 congressional testimony, partly by stating the CIA was “not involved at all” with the Steele dossier.
Attorney General Todd Blanche helped supervise the Justice Department’s Brennan investigation when the office was under Pam Bondi’s leadership. Trump dismissed Bondi in April due to growing White House dissatisfaction with the speed and results of her team’s investigations.
Last month, the Justice Department replaced the experienced Miami prosecutor who had been directing the Brennan investigation. The department then appointed Joe DiGenova, a former federal prosecutor who became a conservative legal commentator and Brennan critic, to supervise the probe and a related effort examining whether previous Trump investigations constituted a conspiracy against the president.
Prosecutors initially sent several subpoenas for witnesses in the Brennan investigation to appear before a federal grand jury in Washington, indicating a more aggressive investigative approach. In an uncommon action, those subpoenas were retracted in mid-April shortly after being issued, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.
DiGenova’s appointment has created anxiety among current and former CIA employees who fear he will target anyone in the intelligence community whom Trump believes participated in politically motivated investigations, two sources reported.
