The FBI has opened felony investigations into former CIA director John Brennan and former FBI director James Comey over alleged misconduct throughout Trump-Russia investigation, Fox News Digital reported citing justice division sources.Two DOJ sources acquainted with the matter described the pair’s conduct as a “conspiracy,” and contains allegedly making false statements to Congress.The investigation into Brennan follows CIA director John Ratcliffe’s current declassification of a “lessons learned” evaluation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which concluded Russia interfered within the 2016 election to profit Donald Trump. However, the evaluation revealed that the evaluation was rapidly assembled, marred by “procedural anomalies,” and deviated from established intelligence protocols.The evaluation discovered that together with the discredited Steele Dossier within the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment violated core intelligence requirements and broken its credibility. It additionally marked the primary official acknowledgment by CIA profession officers of political affect within the ICA’s creation, revealing that Brennan pushed for the file’s inclusion, regardless of later testifying to Congress that he opposed it.
The investigation into Brennan’s alleged false statements is linked to a newly declassified 2016 electronic mail from the previous deputy CIA director, warning that even mentioning the Steele file within the ICA might compromise the credibility of all the evaluation.“Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness. When confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders – one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background – he appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns,” the brand new CIA evaluation stated, as per Fox News Digital.“Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing, stating that ‘my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report’,” it added.Regarding James Comey, DOJ sources stated that he was below investigation, although they declined to reveal the particular focus of the probe.