House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) referred ex-CIA Director John Brennan to the Justice Department Tuesday for criminal prosecution over false statements he allegedly made to Congress related to the 2016 Trump-Russia collusion probe.
Jordan, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, indicated there is “significant evidence” the Obama-era spy chief made “numerous willfully and intentionally false statements” during his May 11, 2023 testimony before the Judiciary Committee about the CIA’s reliance on the discredited Steele dossier in assessing claims President Trump’s 2016 campaign was colluding with Russia.
“John Brennan lied to Congress,” Jordan wrote on X, sharing the full referral. “Today, we referred him to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.”
Former CIA Director John Brennan arrives for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing evaluating the intelligence community assessment on “Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” on Capitol Hill in Washington. REUTERSThe Ohio Republican specifically cited discrepancies between Brennan’s sworn testimony and his written orders to subordinates, demanding the inclusion of material from ex-British spy Christopher Steele’s salacious dossier in an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
“Brennan testified that ‘the CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment,’” the letter stated.
“This claim is contradicted by multiple sources that reveal Brennan’s support for including the dossier in the ICA.”
Jordan noted that a CIA memo declassified by the Trump administration earlier this year indicated Brennan was “confronted” about “specific flaws” in the Steele dossier by senior CIA officials – as the agency crafted the ICA report at the behest of former President Barack Obama – but he “disregarded their concerns, ‘appear[ing] more swayed by the [d]ossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.’”
The CIA memo said Brennan later “formalized his position in writing, stating that ‘my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.’”
An X tweet from Rep. Jim Jordan stating that John Brennan lied to Congress.
Brennan later “refused to remove” the dossier from the ICA, even after being presented evidence of the dossier’s “many flaws” by senior CIA officials, according to a House Intelligence Committee report on Russiagate cited by Jordan, responding, “Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?”
“This directly contradicts Brennan’s testimony that ‘the CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the [ICA]’ because as the Director of the CIA, Brennan spoke for the Agency,” Jordan wrote.
The House Judiciary Committee chairman further alleged that Brennan lied to Congress when he denied the CIA relied on the Steele dossier at all in drafting the post-2016 election ICA.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to the media in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. REUTERS“Brennan stated that ‘the CIA was not involved at all with the [Steele] dossier,’” during the same May 2023 hearing, Jordan wrote.
“A report drafted by HPSCI in 2017, and recently declassified, shows Brennan’s testimony to be false,” the chairman continued.
“[T]he decision to incorporate information from the Steele dossier in the ICA ‘was jointly made by the Directors of CIA and FBI[.]’ A senior FBI analyst confirmed this fact, telling HPSCI that, after debating for several days whether to include information from the dossier, ‘upper levels [at FBI and CIA] decided to put it in,’” Jordan added, citing the documents declassified by the Trump administration in July.
Rep. Jim Jordan looks on during a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on September 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. Getty Images“Brennan’s assertion that the CIA was not ‘involved at all’ with the Steele dossier cannot be reconciled with the facts.”
Jordan’s letter also highlighted alleged false testimony Brennan gave to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 regarding the Steele dossier, which cannot be prosecuted under the five-year statute of limitations.
Jordan said the 2017 testimony “indicates a pattern of Brennan’s willingness to lie to Congress about the Steele dossier.”
The criminal referral is at least the third related to Brennan’s actions in the wake of the 2016 election.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe had earlier this year made criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
The FBI launched a criminal investigation into the former CIA boss in July.
