WASHINGTON − Former CIA Director John Brennan is the "target" of one Justice Department investigation – into assertions he lied to Congress – and has just been subpoenaed in a separate and “more wide-ranging conspiracy” probe currently underway in South Florida, his defense lawyer said Sept. 14, citing a conversation with Justice Department prosecutors.
Those disclosures, contained in a sworn court declaration by Brennan lawyer Kenneth Wainstein, is significant because it signals that the former top spy in the Obama administration could be in significant and potentially imminent legal jeopardy.
Wainstein said he could not comment on the ongoing case. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from USA TODAY.
As described
in its official Justice Manual, the Justice Department only characterizes someone as a “target” if a prosecutor or grand jury “has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant” or someone who could be charged.
The case in which Brennan’s lawyer said he is a target stems from an October 2025 criminal referral by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Jordan asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Brennan lied to Congress about the sprawling investigation into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, possibly to help President Donald Trump defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Jordan alleged that Brennan violated the federal false-statements statute in a May 11, 2023, transcribed interview by falsely denying that the CIA relied on a controversial private intelligence report known as the Steele dossier in drafting an official 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russia’s election interference.
Brennan has consistently denied lying in his congressional testimony, and he and his supporters have said he is the victim of a political witch hunt by a Trump administration desperate to rewrite the history of Russian interference in the election that first catapulted Trump into the White House.
The Steele dossier was shared with the FBI near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, and a summary of its allegations ultimately was tacked on to a U.S. intelligence community assessment about the Russian interference as an appendix.
Brennan a 'subject' in a broader DOJ investigation
A "subject" of an investigation, by contrast, is a person whose conduct is within the scope of the grand jury's investigation, according to the Justice Manual.
That means Brennan is simply under investigation in the broader probe, in which the Justice Department and FBI are reportedly examining a loosely defined theory that Obama administration officials conspired to deprive Trump of his civil rights over the last decade by investigating not only Russian election interference but also Trump’s more recent retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and other actions.
Wainstein, a former top Justice Department official himself, disclosed in his Sept. 14 court filing that prosecutors presented him with a subpoena for Brennan last Thursday, ordering him to appear Oct. 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The subpoena to Brennan is among “a flurry that have been issued in recent weeks,” the Associated Press reported Sept. 14.
Brennan’s subpoena was delivered the same day that the prosecutor leading the Florida case, Joe diGenova, abruptly resigned. News reports quoted diGenova as saying he quit over conflicts with the Justice Department and White House over how he was managing the probe.
In the Washington false statements case, Brennan is seeking a court order requiring the Justice Department to preserve all records of investigations targeting him on that grounds that he would need them to challenge any potential criminal charges on vindictive prosecution grounds.
A 'far-reaching' probe into 'issues at Mar-a-Lago and beyond'
Wainstein’s sworn declaration offers perhaps the fullest account yet of the Justice Department’s multi-pronged effort to investigate − and potentially prosecute − top Obama administration officials, including those like Brennan who investigated Trump over Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
That includes the role played by Kurt Olsen, a former Navy SEAL who quietly joined the Trump White House last October as a special government employee. Since then, he's worked with law enforcement and intelligence officials to reinvestigate Trump's debunked allegations about 2020, including that he lost Georgia because of voter fraud and that states used "COVID to cheat" via mail-in ballots.
"On September 11, 2026, I along with co-counsel, participated in a conference call with Kurt Olsen and three other members of the prosecution team to discuss the grand jury subpoena served on my client," Wainstein said in his Sept. 14 sworn declaration.
"In that call, Mr. Olsen fielded our inquiries and indicated there are multiple 'viable' grand jury investigations, including a 'far-reaching' investigation in Fort Pierce that includes 'issues at Mar-a-Lago and beyond' into whether President Trump had his civil rights violated," Wainstein wrote.
"Mr. Olsen also confirmed there continued to be an additional investigation relating only to Director Brennan’s statements before Congress in the District of Columbia," Wainstein continued. "Mr. Olsen explained that Director Brennan was a 'target' of the narrower investigation, and the investigation for which he was now being subpoenaed was the 'more wide-ranging conspiracy,' as to which our client was a 'subject.'"
Olsen also "explained that the narrower investigation was 'still viable,' and that the issues in the narrower investigation might also be part of the larger investigation, such as being overt acts" in a broader conspiracy, Wainstein wrote.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-CIA Director Brennan 'target' of DOJ criminal probe, lawyer says
