FBI questions CIA staff in inquiry against ex-chief of spy agency

NEW YORK: The FBI has started interviewing current and former CIA personnel as part of a US Department of Justice investigation involving former CIA director John Brennan and his role in an intelligence assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 US election, according to five people familiar with the matter.

The interviews were conducted last week at CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia, by agents from the FBI’s Miami field office. Three of the sources said the questioning is expected to continue in the coming weeks.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has been pursuing the Brennan investigation for months. Prosecutors are examining whether Brennan made a false statement to Congress in 2023 while discussing a 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Focus on 2017 intelligence assessment

The central findings of the 2017 assessment said Russia carried out cyber-espionage and influence operations aimed at helping Donald Trump’s candidacy against Hillary Clinton. Those conclusions were later upheld by the Justice Department, a bipartisan Senate committee and a CIA review.

Despite that, President Donald Trump has continued to describe the Russia investigation as a hoax and has pressed prosecutors to examine figures he believes were involved in driving that inquiry, including Brennan.

One person familiar with the investigation said FBI agents had questioned about a dozen current and former CIA officers who worked on the 2017 assessment. The officers are being asked about Brennan’s part in preparing the assessment and whether its conclusions were influenced by the Steele dossier, a controversial compilation of unverified allegations about Trump’s links to Russia.

The dossier, prepared by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and funded by Trump’s political opponents, contained salacious claims about alleged ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Moscow, which Trump strongly denied. The dossier was mentioned briefly in the assessment, while a summary of its allegations was attached to a classified version of the document.

Brennan has said the CIA resisted including the dossier in the report and that the classified summary was attached only as part of a compromise with the FBI.

Legal and political developments

Brennan’s lawyer said in a letter to the chief federal judge in Miami that prosecutors had informed his client that he is a target of the investigation. The lawyer also alleged prosecutors were "judge shopping" in an effort to direct the case to a Trump-appointed judge in Fort Pierce, Florida, who had previously thrown out a criminal case against Trump.

People familiar with the matter expect that any charges, if filed, would ultimately need to be brought in Washington, D.C., because Brennan’s congressional testimony took place there.

In October, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, referred Brennan to the Justice Department. Jordan alleged Brennan lied in 2023 congressional testimony, including by saying the CIA was "not involved at all" with the Steele dossier.

Attorney General Todd Blanche helped oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into Brennan when the office was led by Pam Bondi. Trump dismissed Bondi in April amid growing White House frustration over the pace and results of her team’s investigations.