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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Justice Department, 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 sent Tuesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Jordan claimed that Brennan’s 2023 sworn testimony included “willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact” related to the Steele dossier and its connection to the Intelligence Community Assessment on Russia’s activities during the 2016 election.
The referral asks the Justice Department to investigate whether Brennan violated federal law, which bars knowingly making false or misleading statements to Congress.
Jordan said Brennan denied in a May 11, 2023, interview with the committee that the CIA had any involvement with the Steele dossier. The document, compiled in 2016 by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and funded by the Clinton campaign, included unverified claims about Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
According to the letter, newly declassified records show that CIA personnel helped prepare a classified annex to the 2017 assessment summarizing Steele’s material, and that Brennan and then-FBI Director James Comey jointly approved it. Jordan said Brennan misled lawmakers by claiming the CIA opposed adding the dossier, citing a declassified agency memo indicating he overrode analysts’ objections.
The letter quotes Brennan as writing, “My bottom line is that I believe the information warrants inclusion in the report.” Jordan also noted Brennan’s 2017 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, where he told members the dossier “was not in any way used as a basis” for the assessment.
Jordan said it shows a “pattern of deception” in Brennan’s testimony before Congress.
“The Committee cannot perform its oversight function if witnesses who appear before it do not provide truthful testimony,” Jordan wrote, asking the Justice Department to determine whether Brennan’s conduct meets the threshold for prosecution.