In a dramatic escalation, the House Judiciary Committee on Monday formally referred former Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution, a move that could ultimately lead to an official indictment.
The referral comes in a letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi from Republican Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, who cited what he described as “significant evidence” that Brennan “knowingly made false statements during his transcribed interview before the Committee on the Judiciary on May 11, 2023.”
“Brennan made numerous willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact contradicted by the record established by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the CIA,” Jordan wrote. “Making false statements before Congress is a crime that undermines the integrity of the Committee’s constitutional duty to conduct oversight.”
The referral specifically zeroes in on Brennan’s testimony regarding the CIA’s role in the Steele dossier—a series of now-discredited reports alleging links between President Donald Trump and Russia—as well as other claims about Russian involvement in Trump’s 2016 election victory.
“The Steele dossier was a series of reports containing baseless accusations concerning President Trump’s ties to Russia compiled and delivered to the FBI in 2016 by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele,” Jordan explained. He added that subsequent investigations revealed that the dossier had been financed by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, through law firm Perkins Coie and opposition research firm Fusion GPS, to generate derogatory material about Trump’s alleged Russian connections. “This effort ultimately resulted in the discredited dossier,” Jordan noted.
According to Jordan, Brennan repeatedly misled Congress about the dossier. Brennan had testified that “the CIA was not involved at all with the [Steele] dossier,” a claim the committee chairman labeled a “blatant lie.” The letter also referenced Brennan’s May 2017 testimony, in which he asserted that the dossier “was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community assessment that was done.”
Although some of these statements fall outside the five-year statute of limitations, Jordan emphasized that they reveal a consistent pattern: Brennan’s purported willingness to mislead Congress regarding the Steele dossier.
“In sum, Brennan’s testimony before the Committee on May 11, 2023, was a brazen attempt to knowingly and willfully testify falsely and fictitiously to material facts,” Jordan wrote. He concluded that the committee is formally requesting the Department of Justice to examine whether Brennan’s testimony constitutes a violation of federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. “We therefore make this referral for the Department to examine whether any of Brennan’s testimony warrants a charge for the violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter,” Jordan’s letter stated.
The referral marks a rare instance in which a former intelligence chief has been formally pushed toward potential criminal liability, highlighting the ongoing partisan tensions over the investigations into Russian interference and the broader scrutiny of the CIA’s role in politically charged intelligence matters.
John Brennan lied to Congress.
Today, we referred him to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
Read the full referral here: https://t.co/NG45lgFWgM pic.twitter.com/92BF4BUz4B
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 21, 2025
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