A Justice Department probe into former CIA Director John Brennan is “heating up,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News, pointing to new requests for congressional testimony records as a sign the investigation is gaining momentum.
“Maybe there’s ultimately going to be some accountability for Brennan, . . .” Jordan said Wednesday night on “Hannity,” later adding, “I think it’s getting serious here.”
Jordan tied the probe to a broader dispute over the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, arguing key intelligence conclusions were improperly changed at Brennan’s direction in late 2016.
“This is when it all began,” Jordan said.
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“They changed the intelligence community assessment from December of 2016, when it said there was no conspiracy, no collusion between Trump and Russia to influence the election. One month later, they changed it… at the urging of John Brennan, and he lied to us about it when we were deposing him last Congress, and that’s why we sent the initial criminal referral letter that we sent in October.”
Jordan referred Brennan to the Justice Department last year, citing allegations that Brennan lied in his 2023 Judiciary Committee testimony by denying that the CIA used the Steele dossier in preparing the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian election interference and claiming the CIA opposed including the dossier.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department has reportedly sought records from the House Intelligence Committee, including transcripts of Brennan’s past congressional testimony.
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Lawyers for Brennan said they have been informed he is a target of the investigation but have not been told of any “legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation,” according to the Associated Press.
Brennan also previously pushed back on the Trump administration’s allegations of wrongdoing, including claims from Trump and his allies that Brennan helped promote a “contrived narrative” that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump, which was central to investigations into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
In a joint New York Times guest essay with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the pair wrote, “That is patently false. In making those allegations, they seek to rewrite history.”
Jordan and other Republicans remain critical of the intelligence community’s handling of the Russia investigation, arguing it was politically motivated.
“God bless the attorney general for initiating this conspiracy investigation down there and putting this unit together at the Justice Department to look into all of this,” Jordan said.
“Now I think we’re maybe hopefully finally going to get some accountability.”
Fox News’ Alexandra Koch and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
