john brennan

Ex-CIA director calls Jim Jordan a Trump 'supplicant' in response to criminal referral

Former CIA Director John Brennan had a pithy response to House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in response to him recommending to the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Brennan be prosecuted.

Earlier this week, Jordan called on the DOJ to indict Brennan for allegedly lying to Congress. Jordan told Attorney General Pam Bondi that Brennan "knowingly made false statements during his transcribed interview" in May of 2023 with the House panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Jordan specifically accused Brennan of lying about the CIA not being involved in the compiling of the "Steele dossier," which is a series of memos written by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele about President Donald Trump's alleged dealings with Russia.

In a Wednesday segment with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, Brennan likened Jordan's criminal referral to the Ohio Republican simply wanting to "get into the action of Trump's revenge tour," and called the accusation of lying to Congress "fallacious."

"I have cooperated with all of these inquiries and investigations of the government. I have explained exactly what transpired during the Russian interference in 2016 election," Brennan said. "And Jim Jordan now, I think is trying to twist my words and misrepresent and mischaracterize the facts as a way to play to and be a supplicant to Donald Trump, which is why he's making this referral now to the Department of Justice."

"This ground has been retread and plowed numerous times, and I even wrote about it in my memoir exactly what happened there," he continued. "Why, oh, why would I have any motivation to not tell the truth to Congress about this? Because it's already a matter of public record."

Wallace reminded viewers that Brennan had already been "investigated by some of the closest allies to to Donald Trump," including Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, when he represented Florida in the U.S. Senate. Brennan added that he also sat down for multiple hours of interviews with former DOJ special counsel John Durham, who former Attorney General William Barr appointed to head an investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

"Again, going through all of this, trying to make sure that they understood clearly," Brennan said. "But clearly, Jim Jordan wants to be able to satisfy Donald Trump in terms of going after Donald Trump's critics, which I am one of. And I have been outspoken when I see that Donald Trump is doing things wrong. So again, it's it's as unsurprising as it is ludicrous in terms of this referral that he's made to the Department of Justice."

Watch the segment below:

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'Worry every American': Ex-CIA head reveals 'most appalling' part of Trump indicting James

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice on Thursday indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), and one national security expert is warning that the charges have strong implications about the state of the American justice system.

In a Thursday interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, John Brennan — who was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during former President Barack Obama's administration — slammed the indictment of James, who successfully sued Trump for fraudulent real estate valuations in 2023.

Brennan observed that the DOJ indicting both James and former FBI Director James Comey was "just one feature that we have seen over the last nine months in terms of the collapse of the America we once knew." He also said that whether the prosecutions are ultimately successful in court is irrelevant to Trump's aims.

"Donald Trump probably doesn't care. He probably would like people to get convicted, but he knows he can't control that," Brennan said. "What he would like, though, is to have the word 'indicted' next to individuals' names. And he knows that he has a Department of Justice that he can exploit and manipulate, and he he has an attorney general who's willing to do the bidding."

The former CIA director compared Bondi's DOJ indicting James and Comey to former President Richard Nixon's attorney general, Elliot Richardson, who resigned after refusing Nixon's orders to indict special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Watergate investigation. According to Brennan, Americans should have no reason to expect Trump administration officials to put the country's interests above their loyalty to the president.

"We are not in that era anymore. We don't have individuals who are willing to stand up to what clearly is an autocratic, authoritarian effort on the part of the Trump administration," he said. "Not just Trump, it's the Stephen Millers and others who are very mean-spirited, very vengeful, very nasty in many respects, trying to hurt people across the board."

"If you're not on the Trump team, you are potentially a target ... The way that they're going out now and trolling and looking for ways to indict people or bring charges against people, really is something that should worry every American," he added. "And the fact that Republican in Congress are allowing this to happen, that I find is the most appalling part. Until they grow some ... in Congress and say enough is enough, I think we're going to continue to see this abuse of power, which is what it is."

Watch the segment below:

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