(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The House Judiciary Committee referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the DOJ for criminal investigation and potential prosecution over repeated false statements made during a transcribed interview in May 2023.
The referral, filed Tuesday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, specifically accused Brennan of lying to Congress about the Obama-era CIA’s reliance on the debunked Steele dossier in drafting the post-2016 election Intelligence Community Assessment.
In 2023, Brennan appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, which was investigating the origins of the 2016 claims that Russia meddled in the election to help then-President-elect Donald Trump.
The referral noted that newly declassified documents released by the Trump administration contradict Brennan’s testimony that “the CIA was not involved at all with the dossier” and that the CIA did not rely on the dossier for its assessment.
Asked why not, Brennan told then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., that the dossier “wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community assessment that was done.”
That line of defense was echoed by Democrats after the dossier, funded by Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign, was revealed to be riddled with fake claims and errors.
The truth was far more complicated.
The FBI relied heavily on the dossier’s claim for its investigation. The CIA then worked closely with the FBI’s findings on the 2016 report “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections.”
The report, also known as an Intelligence Community Assessment or ICA, referenced the Steele dossier in its text and included a two-page annex summarizing its claims.
Worse still, documents also show that Brennan ordered the Steele dossier’s inclusion in the ICA despite objections from senior CIA officers.
Jordan asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to determine whether Brennan’s testimony to Congress amounted to a federal crime.
Making materially false statements to Congress in an official proceeding is a federal offense.
Brennan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. In a recent appearance on MSNBC, he said he reviewed his actions and saw no basis for criminal charges against himself.
“I don’t see any case against me. I have looked back on all of my actions and decisions, and with John Durham, the special counsel, and others that have looked at what we did — they were certainly consistent with our legal authorities and with the law,” Brennan said.
Read the referral below:
