U.S. Attorney John Durham, under Bill Barr’s DOJ, is now taking a look at John Brennan, the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Durham is running a criminal probe into the Russian investigation by the FBI, which sought to tar and feather President Trump and show that he colluded with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
Special Counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller ultimately found no damning evidence against Donald Trump. But Barr and Durham still want to know all the details of how the investigation was run. John Durham as reportedly been questioning CIA officials closely related with John Brennan’s intelligence community assessment in 2017 regarding the investigation of Russian interference.
Brennan denied that he relied on the debunked dirty dossier from Christopher Steele in 2017 for his assessment report that he made. Despite this, DOJ IG Horowitz, according to Sara A. Carter.com, “confirmed in his report that the dossier was used in the Obama administration’s 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA).
As stated in the IG report, there were discussions by top intelligence officials as to whether the Steele dossier should be included in the ICA report.” On Horowitz’s report, former FBI director James Comey allegedly told investigators that Brenan said the dossier was “important” enough to include in his assessment after all. Even the New York Times has reported that Brennan is being investigated as to whether or not he had “preconceived notions about Russia and hid intelligence from other agencies”.
Brennan, an avowed Trump hater, takes to his Twitter handle every few days, with his grumpy faced profile avatar, to bash President Trump, and seemingly anyone who stands up for him. It does seem likely that Brennan had contempt for the President beyond doing his due diligence as an Intelligence officer, but Durham and Barr will eventually shed more light on if this will have an adverse effect on Brennan going forward, ie: if he will be held accountable for any wrongdoings.
Brennan recently had to apologize for falsely stating on live TV that President Trump wrote a note on a Ritz-Carlton pad saying “get Zelensky to announce that the Biden case will be investigated”. He claimed he didn’t actually mean what he said though and that it was an error of words, not an actual lie. See his tweet below:
On MSNBC tonight, I mistakenly said Trump wrote note, released by House yesterday, saying “get Zelensky to announce Biden investigation.” It was written by Les Parnas, who told Rachel Maddow today in explosive interview everything he did was known & directed by Giuliani & Trump.
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) January 16, 2020
Many were disappointed at the fact that former Deputy Director of the FBI, Andy McCabe was not charged with anything after a damning IG report recently, but some conservative commentators like Sean Hannity believe Barr and Durham have their sights set on bigger targets. This remains to be seen as the American people await the details on whether or not there was any shady business conducted to launch the Russia-Mueller probe against Russia and President Trump, to begin with. The New York Times reported in part:
Mr. Durham appears to be pursuing a theory that the C.I.A., under its former director John O. Brennan, had a preconceived notion about Russia or was trying to get to a particular result — and was nefariously trying to keep other agencies from seeing the full picture lest they interfere with that goal, the people said.
The NYT went on to throw shade on the angle, also posting:
But officials from the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency have told Mr. Durham and his investigators that such an interpretation is wrong and based on a misunderstanding of how the intelligence community functions, the people said. National security officials are typically cautious about sharing their most delicate information, like source identities, even with other agencies inside the executive branch.
Mr. Durham’s questioning is certain to add to accusations that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies, like Mr. Brennan, who has been an outspoken critic of the president. Mr. Barr, who is overseeing the investigation, has come under attack in recent days over senior Justice Department officials’ intervention to lighten a prison sentencing recommendation by lower-level prosecutors for Mr. Trump’s longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr.
