Former CIA Director John Brennan filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday demanding a court order requiring the Trump administration to preserve records from investigations he says are targeting him for politically motivated reasons, describing the probes as retribution for his lawful conduct and constitutionally protected criticism of the president.

Lawsuit Warns of Risk to Key Records

Filed in federal court in Washington, the lawsuit contends that without a preservation order, records central to any future defense against criminal charges risk being lost or deliberately deleted. Brennan’s legal team argues the records — including emails, calendar entries, and communications from Trump and other White House officials about the investigations — would reveal the motivations of government officials directing the probes and provide the basis for a motion to dismiss any eventual indictment as a vindictive prosecution.

“To fully consider those motions, the reviewing judge would need to scrutinize the motivations of the Justice Department officials who directed, oversaw, or undertook those actions,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote in the complaint, “to determine whether they violated Director Brennan’s rights, and specifically whether they were motivated by a desire to vindictively prosecute him as an act of retribution.”

What the Investigations Are Examining

The John Brennan lawsuit identifies two ongoing investigations. Prosecutors based in Florida are examining whether Brennan made a false statement to Congress in 2023 related to an intelligence community assessment documenting Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. A second investigation is probing whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired to undermine Trump, including during the course of that same Russian interference inquiry. Brennan has denied any wrongdoing.

Preemptive Strike Against Politically Motivated Prosecution

The lawsuit represents a preemptive legal maneuver against investigations that Brennan’s team says are part of a broader pattern of politically driven prosecutions orchestrated from the White House. The complaint asserts that Brennan is being targeted due to Trump’s “obsession with punishing him for his lawful conduct as CIA Director and for his constitutionally protected criticism of the President.”

Brennan’s lawyers point to more than 100 verbal or written statements Trump has made since 2017 attacking Brennan, as well as what they describe as presidential directives to the Justice Department to open investigations “without regard to factual or legal justification.”

“That is the reason he is being singled out for investigation of concocted theories of criminal activity,” the lawsuit states, “and that will be the dominant reason for any criminal charges resulting from that investigation.”

Named Defendants and Key Officials

The lawsuit names President Trump along with several senior administration officials as defendants, including acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Also named are Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Joe diGenova, a Reagan-era prosecutor who returned to the Justice Department in April as a special counselor to the attorney general overseeing the investigations.

In December, Brennan’s attorney Ken Wainstein wrote to the chief judge of Florida’s federal court seeking to prevent the investigations from being assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who in 2024 dismissed the classified documents case against the president.

Justice Department Responds

The Justice Department declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. Spokeswoman Emily Covington said in a statement: “While we cannot comment on the existence, or lack thereof, of an investigation, it is certainly rich that John Brennan is accusing anyone of a ‘retribution campaign.'”

Author: Staff Writer | Edited for WTFwire.com | SOURCE: AP News