CIA Director John Ratcliffe has referred former CIA Director John Brennan for criminal investigation, according to Justice Department sources.
Sources told Fox News Digital that Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey are under investigation for possible misconduct related to the Trump–Russia investigation, including allegedly lying to Congress.
Ratcliffe reportedly submitted evidence of Brennan’s wrongdoing to FBI Director Kash Patel, leading to the launch of a criminal probe. The investigation is now active, though DOJ sources declined to provide further details. It remains unclear whether the investigation focuses solely on Brennan’s alleged false statements to Congress.
Regarding Comey, DOJ sources confirmed that an investigation is underway but did not reveal the specific allegations involved.
While the full scope of the probes remains uncertain, two sources said the FBI views their actions as a potential “conspiracy,” which could lead to broader legal consequences.
Both the FBI and CIA declined to comment, and neither Brennan nor Comey responded to Fox News Digital’s request for a statement.
The investigation into Brennan follows Ratcliffe’s recent declassification of a “lessons learned” report on the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). That assessment concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 election to support Donald Trump. However, the review found that the ICA’s preparation was rushed, contained procedural flaws, and deviated from standard intelligence practices.
It also criticized agency heads for including the Steele Dossier in the ICA, calling it a breach of basic intelligence tradecraft that damaged the credibility of the report. The dossier, filled with discredited and unverified claims against Trump, was funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC through Fusion GPS. The review marked the first time career CIA officials acknowledged political interference in drafting the ICA, particularly by Obama-era appointees.
Newly declassified records show that John Brennan actively pushed for the Steele Dossier to be included in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), contradicting his May 2023 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, where he claimed he didn’t believe it should have been included.
A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that CIA Director John Ratcliffe wasn’t surprised by the findings, given his long-standing criticism of Brennan’s politicization of intelligence. However, Ratcliffe felt compelled to refer parts of Brennan’s conduct to the FBI for possible criminal investigation. While the sensitive details of the referral weren’t disclosed, the source said Brennan had “violated the public’s trust and should be held accountable.”
The investigation’s focus on false statements is tied to a newly declassified email sent to Brennan by the former deputy CIA director in December 2016. That email warned that including the Steele Dossier in the ICA could compromise the credibility of the entire report.
The CIA’s internal review found that Brennan prioritized “narrative consistency over analytical soundness.” It noted that when senior CIA analysts flagged problems with the dossier, Brennan appeared more influenced by how well it fit existing narratives than by legitimate tradecraft concerns. Despite objections, he later confirmed in writing, “my bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.”
However, in his 2023 congressional testimony, Brennan claimed, “The CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele Dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment,” asserting that the document was to be handled separately.
At the time, CIA officials objected to the FBI’s push to include the dossier, dismissing it as mere “internet rumor.” While the final ICA presented to President Obama didn’t feature Steele’s reporting in its main body, it was included in a footnote—primarily due to insistence from FBI leadership, according to findings by the DOJ inspector general and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Back in June 2020, Ratcliffe, as director of national intelligence, declassified a footnote—known as “Annex A”—from the 2017 ICA. It stated that Steele’s reporting had “limited corroboration” for claims that President-elect Trump knowingly collaborated with Russian officials to win the 2016 election.
Annex A, which was just under two pages, explained that Steele, a former British spy, provided politically sensitive information between mid-2016 and late that year. His work, funded by the Clinton campaign and the DNC via law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, was not used to support the main ICA conclusions due to concerns about its reliability.
The annex also noted that Steele’s information lacked backing from a robust subsource network. The FBI source admitted they could not vouch for the sourcing or accuracy of the additional material, and so it was excluded from the analytic conclusions.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz later reviewed the use of Steele’s reporting in relation to the controversial FISA warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. His 2019 report cited “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the applications, which leaned heavily on Steele’s unverified claims.
Fox News Digital also previously reported that Brennan briefed President Obama and top officials in July 2016 on intelligence indicating Hillary Clinton’s campaign was crafting a plan to link Trump to Russia.
Ratcliffe, while serving as director of national intelligence, declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes from that meeting, which showed he briefed Obama on a strategy by a Clinton campaign advisor to “vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.”
Present at the meeting were Comey, then-Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Following that meeting, the CIA sent a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) to the FBI for further action. The subject line read “Crossfire Hurricane,” and the memo, later obtained by Fox News Digital, detailed intelligence pointing to Clinton’s approval of a plan to tie Trump to Russian hackers to divert attention from her email server controversy.
On July 31, 2016, the FBI launched a counterintelligence investigation into whether Donald Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia to sway the 2016 election. Internally dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane,” the probe would later become one of the most scrutinized investigations in modern U.S. political history.
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller eventually took over the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. After nearly two years, Mueller’s March 2019 report found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy or coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
Soon after, John Durham was appointed as special counsel to examine how the FBI initiated the Trump-Russia probe.
Durham’s investigation uncovered that the FBI ignored what he described as a “clear warning sign” that it might have been the target of a Clinton-led political strategy aimed at manipulating federal law enforcement during the 2016 election.
Durham’s report stated: “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 in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
He further criticized the bureau’s approach, saying that if the FBI had opened the probe as a preliminary assessment—rather than a full investigation—it might have evaluated the intelligence with more scrutiny.
Durham concluded that the FBI “failed to act on what should have been—when combined with other incontrovertible facts—a clear warning sign” that the bureau was being used as a political tool in 2016.
The White House is now calling for accountability from officials involved during the Obama administration.
“President Trump was right — again,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement to Fox News Digital. “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.”
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