By A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has subpoenaed former CIA Director John Brennan, ex-FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, and former FBI attorney Lisa Page as part of a widening Justice Department investigation into how the 2016 Trump-Russia inquiry began, according to individuals briefed on the matter.
The subpoenas were delivered Friday. Law enforcement officials said as many as 30 more could follow, underscoring the scale of the probe now overseen by U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones.
The latest move follows earlier indications that Brennan is under criminal scrutiny. Strzok and Page, whose 2018 inspector general–released text messages revealed sharp criticism of Donald Trump during the campaign, both served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team. Page left in mid-2017; Strzok was reassigned shortly thereafter and dismissed from the FBI the following year, writes Fox News.
Strzok, then a senior counterintelligence official, opened the bureau’s Russia case in July 2016 under the code name “Crossfire Hurricane.” Page departed the bureau in May 2018. In congressional testimony that summer, Strzok acknowledged an extramarital relationship with her.
Brennan’s exposure stems from a referral initiated by CIA Director John Ratcliffe to FBI Director Kash Patel, triggering a criminal review. While details remain sparse, investigators are examining whether Brennan may have made false statements to Congress. Ratcliffe this summer declassified a review of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which asserted that Moscow sought to help Trump in 2016. The review flagged “procedural anomalies,” a rushed process, and deviations from analytic standards.
Central to that assessment was the handling of the Steele dossier. The review concluded that including it in the ICA contradicted fundamental intelligence principles and harmed the document’s credibility. The dossier—produced by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee—contained unverified claims about Trump that have since been discredited. According to the review, this was the first formal acknowledgment by career CIA personnel that political pressure influenced the ICA’s drafting.
Declassified records show Brennan pushing for the inclusion of Steele’s material despite internal objections. A December 2016 email from a former deputy CIA director warned the move would erode the ICA’s reliability.
Yet in a May 2023 deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, Brennan maintained that “The CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment,” adding that the agency provided the dossier separately.
CIA analysts at the time resisted FBI efforts to embed Steele’s claims, calling them “internet rumor.” The dossier appeared only in an annex after pressure from FBI leadership, a point confirmed by inspector general and Senate inquiries. Ratcliffe later declassified an ICA footnote noting Steele’s reporting had “only limited corroboration” and played no role in the ICA’s core judgments.
Additional declassified material released in 2020 included Brennan’s notes from a July 2016 Oval Office briefing in which he relayed intelligence suggesting the Clinton campaign intended to tie Trump to Russian interference to deflect from the email controversy. Those present included President Obama, FBI Director James Comey, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The CIA subsequently sent a memo to Comey and Strzok referencing the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation.
Mueller’s 2019 report found no evidence of Trump campaign collusion. Special Counsel John Durham later faulted the FBI for failing to scrutinize intelligence about the so-called “Clinton Plan,” calling the omission a “startling and inexplicable failure.”
The Justice Department has now formed a task force to assess evidence transmitted by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard regarding Obama-era officials’ roles in shaping the Russia narrative. Former FBI Director James Comey separately faces charges alleging false statements and obstruction in a congressional matter.
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