Why John Brennan Belongs in Prison

David Harsanyi on Jul 11, 2025

Former CIA Director John Brennan is one of the most contemptible and shady people in public life. Few people have abused their position, power and access with such impunity and hubris.

So, it was a pleasure to read a Fox News report that the FBI has launched a criminal investigation into Brennan, along with former FBI Director James Comey, for possible wrongdoing related to the Trump campaign-Russia collusion probe, including making false statements to Congress.

No, I'm not under the impression Brennan will end up in prison, where he likely belongs, or even see an indictment. The statute of limitations has largely sunset. And even if they hadn't, the notion there will be any reckoning is remote.

My modest hope is that perhaps a better accounting of his corruption for the historical record will destroy Brennan's reputation forever, which shouldn't be a heavy lift.

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe released a report on the origins of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that concluded Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. It was more or less as one might have expected.

One of the things we learned, however, was that Brennan claimed in 2017 testimony before Congress that the Steele Dossier, an oppo doc paid for by Hillary Clinton and Democrats, wasn't "in any way" used as a basis for the ICA. In a 2023 House interview, Brennan claimed the "CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele Dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment."

The problem is that newly declassified CIA emails allegedly show Brennan not only repeatedly pressing for insertion of the Steele Dossier's claims but doing it over the objections of others.

In one 2016 email, Brennan allegedly disregarded warnings from his deputy that the dossier would undermine "the credibility of the entire paper." When two CIA mission center leaders responsible for Russia challenged him about integrating a poorly constructed partisan document into the ICA, Brennan overruled them, insisting: "My bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report."

Now, there is always a chance that Ratcliffe's report is skewed to make Brennan's emails look more incriminating than they were. We'll have to see. We already know that Brennan has for years lied about having insider knowledge of an unprecedented seditious criminal conspiracy against the United States.

When Robert Mueller's investigation was unable to pull together a single indictment related to "collusion," Brennan shrugged it off by saying that he may have "received bad information."

He hadn't.

"Trump is scared of me because I know too much about Russia's election meddling," Brennan would tell the press. When Special Counsel John Durham released his report on origins of the FBI's investigation of the "collusion" investigation, we learned that Brennan, despite spinning unhinged conspiratorial rants nightly on cable television, knew there was nothing there.

Indeed, Durham reports that Brennan had admitted to investigators that there had been "no conspiracy." Yet, as Durham points out, only days later, the former CIA director was on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" contending the opposite, using his former position to suggest there was still much to be divulged.

To understand what little regard Brennan had for truth or position, recall a 2020 email uncovered by the House Judiciary Committee. In it, former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who was working with the Biden campaign to concoct "a talking point" to "push back on Trump" during the final presidential debates, asked Brennan to sign on to the infamous "disinformation" letter that claimed Hunter Biden's laptop was a Russian plant.

"Ok, Michael, add my name to the list. Good initiative. Thanks for asking me to sign on," Brennan replied.

That's all it took for the former director of the CIA to sign his name onto a letter that would be the ostensive reason for a major story implicating a presidential candidate with corruption to be censored by virtually every legacy media outlet and major social media platform.

One hopes his legacy will now be irreparably tarnished.

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David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books -- the most recent, "The Rise of Blue Anon," available now. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. Follow him on X @davidharsanyi.