{"id":5941,"date":"2026-07-01T18:37:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5941"},"modified":"2026-07-01T18:37:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:37:42","slug":"former-cia-director-john-brennan-sues-over-justice-dept-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5941","title":{"rendered":"Former CIA director John Brennan sues over Justice Dept. investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brennan signals his intent to claim vindictive prosecution if he is indicted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in 2016. (J. Scott Applewhite\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Facing a steady drumbeat of indications that the Justice Department could soon seek to indict him, former CIA director John Brennan took the unusual step Wednesday of asking a federal court to intervene before any charges have been filed.<\/p>

Read more Nats\u2019 Cade Cavalli apologizes for telling Willson Contreras to \u2018sit down, boy\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

In a lawsuit filed in Washington, Brennan\u2019s attorneys asked a judge to order top officials at the Justice Department to preserve all records related to the investigation of the Obama-era intelligence director. They said they intend to use those files as part of a defense argument that any prosecution of Brennan stems from a vindictive drive by President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to seek revenge against a longtime critic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration has adopted a policy of using criminal process and prosecution to punish the President\u2019s perceived adversaries,\u201d Kenneth L. Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, wrote. \u201cIt is against this backdrop that the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John O. Brennan, is being vindictively singled out for investigation and prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the filing. But top department officials, including acting attorney general Todd Blanche, have made no secret in recent months that they have Brennan in their sights.<\/p>\n

For months a team of lawyers under the U.S. attorney in Miami have summoned former intelligence officials for interviews and issued a flurry of subpoenas as part of a broad conspiracy investigation<\/a>, the largest and most legally complicated effort the Justice Department has launched in its bid to pursue Trump\u2019s perceived political adversaries.<\/p>\n

The theory, as Justice Department officials have described it, is that Brennan and other government officials violated Trump\u2019s civil rights via a years-long conspiracy stretching back to President Barack Obama\u2019s time in office. Those efforts, investigators have said, include the probes into potential ties between Russia and Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign as well as the efforts to prosecute Trump after his first term in office.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have also been examining testimony Brennan gave to Congress in 2023 about intelligence reports tied to the Russia probe. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, referred Brennan to the Justice Department for potential prosecution on charges that he lied during his testimony.<\/p>

Read more NFL player Calais Campbell\u2019s brother is charged with murder after mother found dead<\/a><\/p>\n

Brennan has denied any wrongdoing and, through his attorneys, repeatedly characterized the efforts to prosecute him as a baseless attempt by the Trump administration to harass and intimidate a prominent rival.<\/p>\n

In their lawsuit Wednesday, Brennan\u2019s lawyers acknowledged the unusual nature of their request, which comes before there is even a case filed against Brennan in court. But they maintained their request was justified, citing examples of other investigations \u2014 including those targeting former Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell<\/a> and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D)<\/a> \u2014 in which courts have recently ruled that the Justice Department has abandoned traditional legal procedures.<\/p>\n

Brennan\u2019s lawsuit names as defendants Trump, Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and the prosecutors in Florida who have been overseeing the probe of Brennan and other government officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment conduct in this case makes it abundantly clear that the driving force behind the investigations targeting Director Brennan is the President\u2019s obsession with punishing him for his lawful conduct as CIA Director and for his constitutionally protected criticism of the President and the President\u2019s policies,\u201d Brennan\u2019s attorneys wrote in the filing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat … is why Director Brennan will have an extremely strong basis to challenge those charges as the product of vindictive and selective prosecution,\u201d they said.<\/p>

Read more Why are World Cup refs giving red cards to players covering their mouths when confronting opponents?<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an unusual move, former CIA Director John Brennan asked a court to order the Justice Department to preserve documents in order to support a claim of vindictive prosecution if he is indicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer CIA director John Brennan sues over Justice Dept. investigation - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5941\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former CIA director John Brennan sues over Justice Dept. investigation - 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