House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, formally referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Justice Department on Tuesday, alleging that Brennan knowingly made false statements to Congress about the agency's role in the 2017 intelligence assessment of Russian election interference.
In a six-page letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Jordan said Brennan's 2023 sworn testimony contained "willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact" related to the Steele dossier and its use in the Intelligence Community Assessment that examined Russia's activities during the 2016 election.
The referral urges the Justice Department to investigate whether Brennan violated federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which prohibits knowingly providing false or misleading statements to Congress.
According to Jordan, Brennan denied during a May 11, 2023, interview with the Judiciary Committee that the CIA had any involvement with the Steele dossier. The dossier, compiled in 2016 by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and funded by the Clinton campaign, contained unverified claims about Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia.
Jordan's letter cites recently declassified records indicating that CIA personnel helped draft a classified annex of the 2017 assessment summarizing Steele's material, and that Brennan and then-FBI Director James Comey jointly approved including it.
The committee's referral also contends that Brennan misled lawmakers when he claimed the CIA opposed adding the dossier to the assessment. Jordan pointed to a declassified CIA memorandum showing that Brennan dismissed internal objections and ordered the material included despite warnings from senior analysts about its reliability.
The letter quotes Brennan's own words from that memo: "My bottom line is that I believe the information warrants inclusion in the report."
Jordan further cited Brennan's 2017 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, when he told members the dossier "was not in any way used as a basis" for the assessment.
Although outside the statute of limitations, the referral argues the earlier statement demonstrates a pattern of deception in congressional testimony.
"The Committee cannot perform its oversight function if witnesses who appear before it do not provide truthful testimony," Jordan wrote.
He asked the Justice Department to determine whether Brennan's conduct meets the threshold for prosecution.
Jordan told Newsmax this month that Brennan "looks like he misled Congress" and that the Department of Justice was "looking into that also," suggesting that further action could follow depending on the department's review.
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