FBI Questions CIA Officials in DOJ Probe of John Brennan over 2016 Russia Assessment

The FBI has started questioning current and former CIA officials in a Justice Department investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan and his role in the intelligence community's 2017 assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Agents have interviewed roughly a dozen officials who helped draft the assessment. Investigators are focusing on how its conclusions were reached and whether Brennan misled Congress in his 2023 testimony, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Brennan is a subject of the investigation, his attorney said.

The probe centers on whether the assessment, which concluded that Russia sought to boost Donald Trump's candidacy, was influenced by the Steele dossier. That document contains largely unsubstantiated allegations of Trump's ties to Russia, funded by his political opponents.

Brennan has said the CIA opposed including the dossier in the assessment, though a summary was attached to a classified version of the report.

The investigation picked up speed after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan referred Brennan to the Justice Department last year. Jordan alleged Brennan made false statements to Congress about the CIA's role with the Steele dossier.

Brennan testified to Jordan's committee that "the CIA was not involved at all with the dossier."

Jordan wrote that this claim is contradicted by multiple sources showing Brennan's support for including the dossier in the assessment, known as the ICA.

A CIA memorandum declassified by the Trump administration states that when two CIA mission center leaders raised "specific flaws" in the dossier with Brennan, he disregarded their concerns. He appeared more swayed by the dossier's general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns, Jordan wrote. The letter cited messages from Brennan that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified in July.

Multiple government reviews later upheld the original intelligence findings. Trump has called the Russia investigation a "witch hunt" and a "hoax," and he has pushed for scrutiny of officials who launched it.

Brennan said the Trump administration is "lawyer shopping," according to Reuters, after the Justice Department replaced prosecutor Maria Medetis Long with Joe diGenova on his case.

Fox News Digital reached out to the CIA and FBI for comment.