House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has referred ex-CIA director John Brennan to the Department of Justice for prosecution for allegedly lying to Congress.
Jordan, an Ohio Republican, claims Brennan misled lawmakers about the infamous Steele dossier — a series of discredited memos created by former British spy, Christopher Steele, that accused Trump of colluding with Russia.
‘Brennan’s assertion that the CIA was not ‘involved at all’ with the Steele dossier cannot be reconciled with the facts,’ Jordan wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
‘Brennan’s testimony … was a brazen attempt to knowingly and willfully testify falsely and fictitiously to material facts.’
Steele provided the dossier to the FBI in 2016, and a summary of its claims was included in an intelligence assessment into Trump’s purported ties to the Kremlin which was ordered by outgoing president Barack Obama.
The referral to the DOJ does not mean that Brennan has been charged with any crime but it comes as Trump has launched prosecutions against a series of his enemies, including former national security chief John Bolton, former FBI boss James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Brennan has continued to publicly criticize the president despite the potential legal jeopardy.
John Brennan, Former CIA Director; NBC News Senior National Security and Intelligence Analyst, appears on ‘Meet the Press’ in Washington DC on October 14, 2018
After last month’s indictment against Comey, Brennan said he would not be ‘intimidated’ and rebuked Trump for ‘corrupting and perverting the justice system.’
‘I’m not going to be intimidated by the likes of Donald Trump. I have always tried to speak my mind and do what I thought was right,’ he told MSNBC.
‘I think more and more people have to speak out, and I’m waiting for those Republicans in Congress to come to their senses, because the damage that’s being done to this country and the dangerous times that we’re in, I think too many Americans do not appreciate the extent of that.’
