House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is asking the Justice Department to prosecute former CIA director John Brennan for allegedly lying to Congress more than two years ago. This move comes amid ongoing efforts by the GOP to leverage the justice system against President Donald Trump’s political adversaries. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Jordan claimed Brennan, who led the CIA during the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, ‘knowingly made false statements during his transcribed interview’ with a congressional panel back in May 2023.
Justin’s allegations center around Brennan’s comments regarding the Steele dossier, a series of largely discredited memos created by a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, that accused Trump and his allies of orchestrating a sweeping election conspiracy with the Kremlin. Steele delivered his dossier to the FBI in 2016, and a summary of its allegations was appended to an intelligence community assessment ordered by outgoing President Barack Obama after Trump was first elected, about Russia’s involvement in that year’s presidential campaign. Jordan argued that Brennan’s assertion that the CIA was not ‘involved at all’ with the Steele dossier cannot be reconciled with the facts, calling his testimony a ‘brazen attempt to knowingly and willfully testify falsely and fictitiously to material facts.’.
Trump has long harbored hostility towards Brennan for his role in probing Russia’s ties to the 3rd, and the fact that, once Brennan left office, the ex-CIA director continued to be an outspoken critic of the president. Brennan is reportedly already under investigation by the DOJ, but his attorney did not immediately return a request for comment. Criminal referrals from Congress typically carry limited weight with the Justice Department, especially in matters where the evidence forming the basis for a potential criminal charge has been public for years. But Trump has made no secret in recent weeks that he expects his prosecutors to criminally charge his political opponents and has publicly pressured Bondi to act quickly in all these cases. In this environment, a referral from a close Trump ally in Congress might draw the president’s attention and spur officials to action.
Following a public plea to Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey, Trump also engineered the ouster of a top federal prosecutor who resisted bringing those cases — instead installing his former personal lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, to a powerful U.S. attorney position. In less than three weeks, Halligan brought charges against Comey and James, who now claim they’re being targeted as part of Trump’s political vendetta. House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) criticized the move, saying,