Former CIA Director John Brennan’s lawyers have taken the extraordinary step of confirming their client is a “target” of a criminal grand jury investigation in Florida and are asking the chief federal judge in Miami to stop the proceedings on the grounds that the Justice Department is “judge shopping.”
The revelations came in a letter that defense lawyers Ken Wainstein and Natasha Harnwell Davis sent Monday to U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, a George W. Bush appointee to the bench who supervises the Miami federal district court.
Wainstein and Davis revealed they have been informed by U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quinones in Miami that the grand jury is investigating Brennan’s role in the 2016-27 Russia collusion probe that has since been discredited, including a CIA assessment that Russian president Vladimir Putin tried to help Trump win the 2016 election.
Whistleblower evidence released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe has called into question that assessment, revealing career intelligence experts disagreed with the conclusions made in the rushed report released to the public at the end of the Obama administration.
The evidence also showed that Brennan personally pressed to have a discredited document known as the Steele dossier included in the assessment contrary to his testimony to Congress, prompting both Ratcliffe and Gabbard to refer Brennan for possible prosecution.
“We have been formally advised by prosecutors of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida that Director Brennan is a target of grand jury investigation NS 1840-020 in the Miami Division (24-06), which is examining the circumstances surrounding the production of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election in the United States,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote Altonaga.
The U.S. Attorney’s manual describes a “target” as some who is likely to be indicted by a federal grand jury.
The lawyers alleged that the grand jury probe is the result of pressure by President Donald Trump on Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue the president’s past critics and persecutors and that the goal is to rig the judicial system so that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed an indictment against Trump brought by ex-Special Counsel Jack Smith, lands the Brennan case.
“As explained below, it has become clear that irregular activity is taking place in connection with that grand jury investigation, which is affecting our client’s rights to fair and impartial treatment by the criminal justice system,” the lawyers alleged. “One example is the violation of grand jury secrecy rules, by which information about the investigation is being leaked to the media (see below at pages 15-16).
“Another example of irregular activity – which is even more troubling and potentially harmful to our client’s rights – relates to the government’s apparent effort to manipulate grand jury and case assignment procedures to ensure that this investigation and any resulting prosecution will be overseen by a particular District Judge of its preference,” the letter added, citing Cannon by name.
The lawyers added: “Given the corrosive effect of judge shopping on the perceived fairness and impartiality of the criminal justice system – particularly when conducted by a federal prosecutor – we wish to alert the Court to the evidence underlying our concern.”
You can read the full letter here.
The letter is an extraordinary injection by Brennan’s defense team and likely signals his lawyers fear an indictment is imminent. And it comes as Democrats, after years of being accused by Republicans of weaponizing the justice and intelligence systems to pursue Trump, now try to turn the tables and argue they are now the victims of such weaponization.
“We are seeking assurance that any litigation arising out of this grand jury proceeding will be heard by a judge who is selected by the court’s neutral and impartial processes, not by the prosecution’s self-interested maneuvering contrary to the interests of justice,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote.
A Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately return a call Monday night seeking comment.
