Former CIA Director John Brennan's son, Kyle Brennan, was federally charged in Virginia with transporting child pornography.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick signed a criminal complaint for
the charges Friday, Nov. 13, and court records show Kyle Brennan also made an initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Friday.
A lawyer who is listed for Kyle Brennan in court records, federal public defender Lauren Rosen, declined to comment.
The alleged crime was uncovered after the Warrenton Police Department in Virginia identified an account registered to Kyle Brennan that was allegedly used to upload suspected child sexual abuse material, according to a Justice Department press release, which cited court documents. The alleged material included a morphed image combining the face of one minor girl, a 12-year-old, and the naked body of a different minor girl.
The Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office in Warrenton, which confirmed the identity of the 12-year-old, searched Kyle Brennan's residence and electronic devices, including his cellphone, in late July, before referring the investigation to the FBI in early October, the Justice Department said.
On Friday, the FBI reviewed extracted data from the phone and found about 88 images that appeared to depict minor victims, including prepubescent girls engaged in sexually explicit conduct and an image of a toddler being sexually abused, the DOJ alleged.
The maximum penalty for the alleged crime is 20 years in prison, the DOJ said.
Kyle Brennan's father, John Brennan, served as the director of the CIA for several years under former President Barack Obama.
The Trump administration has investigated John Brennan for years in one of multiple probes looking at people in the Obama administration who investigated Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In September, John Brennan’s defense lawyer told USA TODAY the former CIA director was the "target" of one Justice Department investigation – into assertions he lied to Congress – and that Brennan had just been subpoenaed in a separate and “more wide-ranging conspiracy” underway in South Florida targeting Obama administration officials who had investigated Trump.
Kenneth Wainstein, a lawyer for John Brennan, said he could not comment on the ongoing cases at the time, but that designating Brennan as a target was significant because it signaled that the former top spy could be in significant and potentially imminent legal jeopardy.
John Brennan has denied wrongdoing, has not been charged in any case and has challenged the investigations as a vindictive prosecution driven by political animosity by the Trump administration. He filed a lawsuit against DOJ in July 2026 seeking the preservation of internal records related to the probes that he said he would need if charged and required to mount a defense.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-CIA Director John Brennan's son faces child pornography charges
