A nervous John Brennan responded to Jim Jordan’s criminal referral during an appearance on MSNBC this week.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Tuesday referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for knowingly making false statements during a May 2023 interview with the House Judiciary Committee.
Jim Jordan’s criminal referral is related to John Brennan’s false statements to Congress related to whether the CIA relied on the Hillary Clinton-funded Steele dossier when drafting the ICA report.
“We write to refer significant evidence that former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Brennan knowingly made false statements during his transcribed interview before the Committee on the Judiciary on May 11, 2023,” Jim Jordan’s letter to Bondi said.
“While testifying, Brennan made numerous willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact contradicted by the record established by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the CIA.”
“Under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, a witness commits a crime if he “knowingly and willfully . . . makes any materially false . . . statement or representation” with respect to “any investigation or review, conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee . . . of the Congress[.]”2 Congress cannot perform its oversight function if witnesses who appear before its committees do not provide truthful testimony. Making false statements before Congress is a crime that undermines the integrity of the Committee’s constitutional duty to conduct oversight,” Jordan said.
Jordan added, “Brennan’s assertion that the CIA was not “involved at all” with the Steele dossier cannot be reconciled with the facts. As the newly declassified documents show, a CIA officer drafted the annex containing a summary of the dossier; Brennan made the ultimate decision, along with then-FBI Director James Comey, to include information from the dossier in the ICA; and, as discussed further below, Brennan overruled senior CIA officers who objected to the inclusion of the dossier material.”
John Brennan also falsely testified that the CIA opposed including the Steele dossier in the ICA report.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace lashed out Jim Jordan and asked Brennan, “New tactic, same story. What is your response to Jim Jordan getting in the action?”
John Brennan said Jim Jordan is getting into the action of Trump’s “revenge tour.”
Well, it’s clear that that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s trying to get into the action of Trump’s revenge tour. As I’ve said several times on this program, as well as in congressional testimony, I’ve cooperated with all these inquiries and investigations of the government,” Brennan said as he shifted around in his chair.
“I have explained exactly what transpired during the Russian interference in the 2016 election. 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,” he said.
“But as you pointed out, I’ve said before, this ground has been retread and plowed numerous times. And I even wrote about it in my memoir, exactly what happened there,” he added.
Brennan said there is no reason why he would ever lie to Congress.
“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,” Brennan said.
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