By The Department of Justice has launched criminal investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, examining whether either engaged in misconduct during the highly controversial Trump-Russia inquiry, according to sources within the DOJ.
The probes focus on allegations of false statements to Congress and broader concerns about the integrity of the 2016 intelligence assessments. Officials say CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred evidence of Brennan’s alleged misconduct to FBI Director Kash Patel for criminal review. The referral was received and a criminal investigation into Brennan was opened and is underway, sources at the Department of Justice told Fox News.
The Brennan probe reportedly centers on an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) following Trump’s victory in 2016, which concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. That finding has since come under scrutiny for what a declassified review called “procedural anomalies” and departures from standard intelligence tradecraft. The same review criticized the inclusion of the discredited Steele Dossier—funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee—saying its use “ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.”
Despite internal opposition at the CIA, where some analysts reportedly called the dossier “internet rumor,” Brennan advocated for its inclusion. “My bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report,” he wrote at the time. But Brennan’s 2023 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee appeared to reverse course. “The CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment,” he told lawmakers, according to a transcript reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Further contradictions emerged in a December 2016 email from Brennan’s then-deputy, warning that the dossier’s inclusion could jeopardize “the credibility of the entire paper.” The review also concluded Brennan “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness” in the face of internal objections.
The Steele Dossier itself, authored by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, was later discredited for its unverified claims. A declassified footnote from the 2017 ICA acknowledged Steele’s reporting had “limited corroboration” and was excluded from the agencies’ final conclusions. Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s 2019 inspector general report flagged “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in FISA warrant applications targeting Trump campaign aide Carter Page, which relied heavily on Steele’s material.
In parallel, Brennan had briefed President Obama, FBI Director Comey, and others—including then-Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Loretta Lynch—on July 28, 2016, about intelligence indicating that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was planning to “vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.” That information was passed to the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation, launched just days later to examine alleged Trump-Russia collusion.
Special Counsel John Durham ultimately found no evidence of such collusion in his March 2019 report. A subsequent probe by Special Counsel John Durham faulted the FBI for mishandling the Clinton campaign intelligence and warned that agents “failed to act” on “a clear warning sign” that the Bureau was being manipulated for political ends. “The aforementioned facts reflect a rather startling and inexplicable failure to adequately consider and incorporate the Clinton Plan intelligence into the FBI’s investigative decision-making,” Durham’s report concluded.
DOJ officials confirmed to Fox that an investigation into the former director [Comey] is underway, but declined to elaborate. Both the FBI and CIA refused to comment, and neither Brennan nor Comey responded to requests for comment.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, “President Trump was right — again. Those who engaged in this political scandal must be held accountable for the fraud they committed against President Trump and the lies they told to the American people.”
Whether criminal charges will follow remains unclear, but the new investigations mark a significant escalation in efforts to revisit the origins and execution of the intelligence community’s corrupt actions during the 2016 election and the White House seems ready to consider what happened as it implements reforms.
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