House Intelligence Committee sends classified John Brennan records to DOJ

The House Intelligence Committee voted Tuesday to transfer classified records tied to former CIA Director John Brennan to the Justice Department, a sign the investigation into whether or not he misled Congress is still moving forward. The probe has largely played out behind closed doors.

According to Newsmax, in October 2025, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Jordan alleged that Brennan knowingly made false statements during a May 2023 interview with the committee, arguing that Brennan’s testimony conflicted with declassified records concerning the Steele dossier and the intelligence community’s January 2017 assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Brennan has rejected those claims, and in a July 2025 MSNBC interview said he knew “nothing” about any investigation and dismissed it as politically driven.

The Associated Press reported in December that Brennan’s lawyers were told he is a target of a grand jury investigation in the Southern District of Florida. The Washington Examiner later reported that his attorneys said the same in a letter, identifying US Attorney Jason Reding Quinones as overseeing the case. Earlier, the Justice Department had confirmed investigations involving Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, without elaborating.

The underlying dispute connects back to the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russia. A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report in 2020 backed the intelligence community assessment that Russia interfered in the election, found no evidence of political pressure on analysts, and determined that the Steele dossier was not used in the core analysis—though it was summarized in a separate annex at the FBI’s urging.

With the committee’s vote, additional classified material is now in the hands of federal prosecutors. Those records are not expected to be released publicly, and no charges have been filed.