Additional Coverage:
- House Judiciary committee refers former CIA Director John Brennan to Justice Department for prosecution (foxnews.com)
Former CIA Director John Brennan Referred to DOJ for Alleged False Statements to Congress
WASHINGTON D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has formally referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly making false statements to Congress. The referral, outlined in a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi, centers on Brennan’s testimony regarding the Steele dossier and its role in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian election interference.
Jordan alleges that Brennan lied during his 2023 Judiciary Committee testimony when he denied the CIA’s use of the Steele dossier in preparing the ICA and falsely claimed the CIA opposed its inclusion.
The Steele dossier, a collection of reports compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, detailed President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia and was delivered to the FBI in 2016.
According to Jordan’s letter, subsequent investigations have “confirmed that the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Steele via the law firm Perkins Coie and opposition research firm Fusion GPS to provide derogatory information about Trump’s purported ties to Russia, which resulted in the discredited dossier.”
Declassified documents from July 2025, released by the Trump administration, appear to indicate that Brennan approved the decision to incorporate the dossier into the ICA, despite objections from senior CIA officials.
During a transcribed interview on May 11, 2023, Brennan stated that “the CIA was not involved at all with the [Steele] dossier.” However, the declassified documents suggest otherwise, stating that the decision to include information from the dossier in the ICA “was jointly made by the Directors of CIA and FBI.”
“Brennan’s assertion that the CIA was not ‘involved at all’ with the Steele dossier cannot be reconciled with the facts,” Jordan wrote in his letter. He further elaborated, “As the newly declassified documents show, a CIA officer drafted the annex containing a summary of the dossier; Brennan made the ultimate decision, along with then-FBI Director James Comey, to include information from the dossier in the ICA; and, as discussed further below, Brennan overruled senior CIA officers who objected to the inclusion of the dossier material.”
While beyond the five-year statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, Jordan also accused Brennan of providing false testimony during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) hearing in 2017. Jordan stated this “indicates a pattern of Brennan’s willingness to lie to Congress about the Steele dossier.”
“The HPSCI report and the CIA memorandum confirm not only that the Steele dossier was used as a basis for the ICA, but that Brennan insisted on its inclusion,” Jordan wrote. “This stands in stark contrast with Brennan’s testimony to HPSCI that the dossier was not used in drafting the ICA. … Brennan’s testimony before the Committee on May 11, 2023, was a brazen attempt to knowingly and willfully testify falsely and fictitiously to material facts.”
This is a developing story.