President Donald Trump's Justice Department may have just destroyed its own case against John Brennan who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2013 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, Axios reports.
In July, Trump responded to reports that Brennan, along with former FBI director James Comey were being investigated over allegations that they made false statements to Congress during the Russia probe, saying, "I think they're crooked as hell and maybe they have to pay a price for that."
Four Trump administration officials told Axios, however, that the investigation has hit a huge roadblock when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard "withdrew the security clearances of potential witnesses who could have testified against" Brennan.
Though Brennan has denied any wrongdoing, those witnesses, Axios reports, are the key to proving that he "inappropriately biased a bombshell 2017 intelligence assessment about Russia favoring Donald Trump, and that he allegedly lied about it to Congress in 2023."
Cancelling the security clearances of these witnesses puts holes in their strategy for several reasons, Axios explains. Among them, "Witnesses would be less willing to cooperate out of anger with the government that besmirched their names."
"Some of these people are my witnesses and this is going to make it really difficult to prosecute now," David Metcalf, the federal prosecutor in charge of the Brennan investigation, told a senior administration official, according to a source with direct knowledge.
"It's a major complication ... a self-inflicted wound," a second official said. "It's an unforced error if you want to talk baseball, an own goal if you want to use soccer," Metcalf said.
A senior intelligence official said it's no big deal, telling Axios, "If DOJ has the legal right to ask about what the interviewee knows, then the interviewee's clearance status is irrelevant."
Another said Gabbard is being hindered by other factors.
"Tulsi is the right person for the job with the wrong team," a senior administration official said. "They've treated this like a PR operation to get on Fox, and not a serious intel reform process envisioned by the president," the official told Axios.
This latest dustup ultimately could benefit Brennan in the long run, according to experts like Mark Zaid, a Trump administration critic who represents six of the intelligence professionals whose clearances were revoked.
"If I were the defense counsel [for Brennan], I would raise the revocation in an attempt to undermine the credibility of the witnesses," Zaid said.